Leonardo’s robot is the common name for Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid mechanical design.
Leonardo sketched the machine around 1495 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. His drawings show a knight-like figure with articulated limbs, a jaw, and a system of pulleys and cables hidden inside armor. The design appears to have been intended for a pageant or court entertainment rather than practical labor.
The machine was not a modern robot in the electronic sense. It was a mechanical automaton powered by human-set motion, using Renaissance engineering ideas such as gears, cords, and cams. Leonardo’s notes do not provide a complete, unambiguous construction manual.
In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working interpretation from Leonardo’s sketches. That reconstruction helped demonstrate that the design could produce coordinated movements. It is often confused with Leonardo’s other theatrical devices, including a mechanical lion.