What mechanical machine did Leonardo da Vinci sketch that resembles a humanoid knight?

Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid knight machine is known as the mechanical knight.

Leonardo designed the mechanical knight around 1495, probably for a pageant at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The machine was covered in armor and used an internal system of pulleys, cables, and gears to imitate human movements.

According to reconstructions of the design, the knight could sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw. Leonardo’s surviving notes do not provide a complete modern instruction manual, so later builders have had to interpret parts of the mechanism.

The mechanical knight is often called Leonardo’s robot. That label is modern, but it captures the central idea: a programmable-looking machine designed to create lifelike movement centuries before electronic robotics.