What mechanical device designed by Leonardo da Vinci is often called Leonardo’s robot?

Leonardo da Vinci’s device often called Leonardo’s robot is the mechanical knight.

Leonardo designed the mechanical knight around 1495 for a festival celebrating Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The machine was built inside an armor suit and used an external operating system of cables, pulleys, and levers. According to modern reconstructions, it could sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw.

The original machine was lost, and no complete contemporary description of its performance survives. In the 20th century, Leonardo scholar Carlo Pedretti identified drawings and notes that helped reconstruct the mechanism. Engineer Mark Rosheim later built working versions based on those studies.

Calling the device a “robot” is useful for modern readers, but Leonardo did not use that word. The term robot was coined centuries later, in the 20th century. The mechanical knight is more precisely an automaton or programmable mechanical figure.