What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to automate the beating of a drum?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical drummer to automate rhythmic percussion.

The device used mechanical motion to move drumsticks against a drum. It belongs to the same broad tradition of Renaissance automata as Leonardo’s mechanical knight, but its purpose was musical performance rather than human-like movement.

A mechanical drummer could repeat a rhythm without a human hand striking the instrument. This required coordinating rotating parts, cams, linkages, or other transmitting mechanisms so that the sticks moved at the desired intervals. Leonardo’s interest in such machines reflected his fascination with both entertainment and the imitation of living action.

The device is sometimes described as a robot, but that modern term can obscure its historical identity. In Leonardo’s era it would have been understood as an automaton: a self-moving mechanical device. Reconstructions are based on surviving design evidence rather than a fully preserved original machine.