What Leonardo da Vinci vehicle could move itself using wound springs and is often called the first robot?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart powered by wound springs.

The cart appears in drawings from the late 15th century and used coiled springs to provide motive power. A system of gears transferred that energy to the wheels, while programmable blocks or cams could determine the cart’s movement. The design may have been intended for theatrical performances or court festivals rather than transportation.

It is often called Leonardo’s robot because it could perform a sequence of movements without a person pushing it. That label is useful but somewhat modern: the cart was an automaton, not an intelligent machine that sensed its environment. Leonardo’s original mechanism was not fully understood until later reconstruction work. In 2006, a team at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan built a working model based on his drawings, showing that the basic concept could function.