Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid machine is commonly called the robotic knight.
Leonardo designed the mechanism in 1495 while working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Notes and drawings indicate an armored figure operated by cables, pulleys, gears, and a crank. The machine could imitate some human movements, including raising its arms, moving its jaw, and sitting or standing.
It was probably intended as an entertainment automaton for a court celebration, not as an autonomous robot in the modern electronic sense. Its movements were controlled mechanically from inside the torso.
The surviving evidence comes mainly from Leonardo’s notebooks, so the exact original appearance and capabilities are reconstructed rather than completely documented. Modern builders have produced working replicas based on those drawings.