Leonardo da Vinci designed a robot knight for a Milan pageant around 1495.
The machine was a suit of armor containing an internal system of pulleys, cables, and levers. When operated by a seated human inside, it could reportedly perform simple movements such as raising its arms and moving its head and jaw. The design was reconstructed from Leonardo’s anatomical and mechanical drawings rather than from a surviving original.
The robot is called a humanoid machine or automaton in historical discussions. It should not be confused with modern autonomous robots: Leonardo’s design required direct mechanical operation and had no electronic control. The reconstruction project led by Mark Rosheim in the late twentieth century helped demonstrate that the surviving sketches could represent a workable mechanism.