What Leonardo da Vinci machine is considered an early programmable humanoid robot?

Leonardo da Vinci’s robot is an early programmable humanoid automaton designed around 1495.

The machine was built in the form of an armored knight. Cables and pulleys inside its body were arranged so that it could sit up, wave its arms, and move its head and jaw. Leonardo’s surviving notes and drawings reveal the mechanical principles, although they do not preserve a complete construction manual.

Leonardo may have designed the automaton for a court entertainment in Milan. The machine was not an electronic robot: it was a mechanical system operated by stored motion and linkages. Modern reconstructions, including one by roboticist Mark Rosheim, have demonstrated that the design could perform several of the intended movements.