What type of machine is Leonardo da Vinci’s 1495 humanoid automaton commonly called?

Leonardo da Vinci’s 1495 humanoid automaton is commonly called a robotic knight. The machine was designed in armor and could perform human-like movements such as sitting, standing, and moving its arms.

Leonardo’s notes and drawings for the device are connected with his work for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The mechanism used a system of cables, pulleys, and gears operated by a crank. It may have been intended for a court pageant or demonstration rather than for combat.

The original machine has not survived, and no complete contemporary description proves exactly how it worked. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawings and reported that it could perform several movements. The label “robot” is modern; Leonardo himself would not have used that twentieth-century term, but the design is widely regarded as an important early humanoid automaton.