What kind of machine was Leonardo da Vinci’s robotic knight?

Leonardo da Vinci’s robotic knight was a humanoid automaton.

Leonardo designed the mechanical knight around 1495 for a festival in Milan organized by Ludovico Sforza. The machine was shaped like an armored medieval knight and used a system of pulleys, cables, and gears to imitate human actions. Reconstructions indicate that it could sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw.

The machine was not a robot in the modern electronic sense. It had no computer, electric motor, or programmable software. “Humanoid automaton” is a more historically accurate description: an automatically moving mechanical figure built to imitate a person.

The design was rediscovered in Leonardo’s Codex Madrid I in the 20th century. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working interpretation, helping demonstrate that the mechanism described in Leonardo’s drawings was mechanically plausible.