What Leonardo da Vinci invention was a mechanical knight that could sit and move its arms?

Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical knight that could sit and move its arms is known as Leonardo’s robot.

Leonardo designed the humanoid machine around 1495 for a pageant in Milan sponsored by Ludovico Sforza. Its armor concealed a system of pulleys, cables, and gears connected to a control mechanism. The robot could reportedly stand, sit, raise its arms, and move its jaw.

The original machine has not survived, and historians cannot verify exactly how much it performed. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working model from Leonardo’s drawings and notes. The reconstruction showed that the design could produce the reported movements.

The machine is often described as the first humanoid robot. More precisely, it was an automaton: a mechanically operated figure designed for entertainment and spectacle. Leonardo also designed an unrelated mechanical lion for a later ceremony.