What Renaissance automaton did Leonardo da Vinci design in the form of an armored human figure?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight in the form of an armored human figure.

The design dates to about 1495 and was probably developed for a pageant or court spectacle in Milan. Leonardo's drawings show an internal system of gears, cables, and pulleys that could make the knight sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw. The machine was concealed inside armor so that it appeared to be a living figure.

A full reconstruction built by Mark Rosheim in the early twenty-first century showed that the surviving design could plausibly produce the described movements. The reconstruction does not prove every detail of the lost original, because no original machine survives.

The mechanical knight is often confused with Leonardo's mechanical lion. The knight represented a humanoid automaton, while the lion was a separate animal-shaped spectacle.