Leonardo da Vinci designed a humanoid robot in the form of a seated, armored knight.
The machine was created for a court spectacle in Milan, probably for festivities held in 1495. Leonardo’s drawings and notes indicate that the knight could perform human-like movements, including sitting, standing, and moving its arms. A system of gears, cables, and pulleys inside the armor controlled the actions.
No original robot survives, and the design was reconstructed from Leonardo’s notebooks in the 20th century. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working model based on the surviving evidence and reported that it could perform the intended movements.
Calling the device a modern robot requires some care: it was a mechanical automaton operated by prearranged mechanisms, not an electronic machine capable of independent decision-making. It remains one of Leonardo’s clearest designs for a human-shaped mechanical device.