What mechanical figure did Leonardo da Vinci design that could imitate a seated knight?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a robotic knight, a mechanical figure that could imitate a seated human.

Leonardo created the design around 1495 for a pageant in Milan sponsored by Ludovico Sforza. The armored figure was intended to move its arms, raise its visor, and sit or stand through a system of pulleys, cables, and gears hidden inside its armor.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although that modern word can suggest electronic intelligence. Leonardo’s device was an automaton: a preprogrammed mechanical figure with no computer, sensor, or independent decision-making ability.

No original robot has survived, and historians reconstructed its operation from Leonardo’s drawings and notes. Modern replicas have shown that the mechanism could plausibly produce the movements described in the design.