Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical humanoid figure is known as the robot knight.
Leonardo designed the robot knight around 1495 for a pageant at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The internal system of cables, pulleys, and gears was intended to let the figure sit, stand, move its arms, and raise its visor. It wore a suit of armor and was likely meant to impress court audiences rather than perform useful labor.
No original robot knight has survived, and historians do not have direct evidence that Leonardo completed it. Modern reconstructions have been based on drawings and notes found in the Codex Atlanticus. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working model using those sources.
The name robot is modern: the word was not coined until the 20th century. Leonardo’s machine was an automaton, meaning a self-moving mechanical device. Calling it a robot is useful for comparison with modern technology, but it should not imply electronic control, artificial intelligence, or independent reasoning.