Leonardo da Vinci designed a robot knight, an armored automaton capable of limited humanlike movements.
Leonardo produced the design around 1495 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The machine was built inside a suit of armor and used cables, pulleys, and gears operated by a concealed mechanism. Reconstructions based on Leonardo’s drawings indicate that it could sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw.
The robot knight was not an autonomous robot in the modern electronic sense. It had no computer, sensors, or independent decision-making system. Its importance lies in the way Leonardo combined knowledge of anatomy with mechanical engineering. The surviving design is also distinct from Leonardo’s military armored vehicle, which is a separate invention often confused with it.