What name is given to Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid machine designed around 1495?

Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid machine designed around 1495 is known as the mechanical knight.

Leonardo created the design while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The machine was probably intended for a court pageant or entertainment rather than for combat. Its internal system of cables, pulleys, and gears could make the figure sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its visor.

The original machine disappeared, and no complete Renaissance example survived. In the 20th century, Leonardo scholar Carlo Pedretti identified notes and drawings that revealed how the mechanism might have worked. Engineer Mark Rosheim later built reconstructions based on those studies.

The mechanical knight is sometimes called Leonardo’s robot, but “robot” is a modern label. The word robot was not coined until the 20th century, so Leonardo’s contemporaries would have regarded the device as an automaton or mechanical figure.