What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to make a mechanical soldier move?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a humanoid robot, now known as Leonardo’s robot, to make a mechanical soldier move.

Leonardo created the design around 1495 while working on engineering and theatrical projects in Milan. The machine was shaped like a medieval armored knight and used a system of pulleys, cables, gears, and cranks. These mechanisms could reportedly make the figure sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw.

The robot was not an electronic machine and did not use electricity. It was an automaton powered by mechanical motion. Leonardo’s surviving notes and anatomical studies helped him think about how joints and limbs could be imitated with engineered parts.

No original working robot has survived. Modern reconstructions based on Leonardo’s drawings have shown that the concept was mechanically plausible. The machine is therefore better understood as a designed automaton than as a programmable robot in the modern computer-controlled sense.