What Leonardo da Vinci invention was a humanoid machine with a programmable armored exterior?

Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical knight was a humanoid automaton designed to sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw. Leonardo probably designed it in 1495 for a pageant at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan.

The machine was covered by armor and powered by an internal system of cables, pulleys, and gears. Its movements were controlled by operating mechanisms inside the torso, showing how Leonardo translated human anatomy into mechanical action.

The original knight has not survived, and no complete contemporary description proves exactly how it worked. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working reconstruction from Leonardo's drawings and related notes. A fuller replica was later displayed at the Leonardo3 museum in Milan.

The knight is often called Leonardo's robot, but “robot” is a modern label. The word was coined in 1920 by Czech writer Karel Čapek, centuries after Leonardo's automaton was designed.