What name is commonly given to Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical knight designed around 1495?

Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical knight designed around 1495 is commonly called Leonardo’s robot.

Leonardo developed the design for a mechanical knight while working in Milan under Ludovico Sforza. The concept was presented in studies associated with a pageant or celebration, although no original robot has survived and the exact performance intended for it is uncertain.

The mechanism used a system of pulleys, cables, gears, and a programmable control structure. Its internal arrangement could make the armored figure sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw. The design shows that Leonardo was investigating automation long before modern robotics.

Engineers and historians reconstructed working models from Leonardo’s drawings in the 20th and 21st centuries. These reconstructions are interpretations, not preserved originals. The invention is therefore best described as a mechanical automaton or robot concept, rather than as a functioning modern robot built by Leonardo himself.