What type of machine did Leonardo da Vinci design with a humanoid figure inside armor?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a humanoid robot with a mechanical figure inside armor.

The design was created around 1495, probably for a court entertainment or pageant in Milan. It showed an armored figure that could sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw through an internal system of cables, pulleys, and gears. Leonardo’s anatomical studies helped him think about how coordinated mechanical movements might imitate a human body.

The robot was not a modern programmable machine. It had no electronic controls and was powered by mechanical linkages operated through preset movements. For many years, historians knew the design mainly from scattered notebook evidence. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawings and related studies. The machine is commonly called Leonardo’s robot, although the word “robot” was coined centuries later and is therefore a modern label.