What type of vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci design with sloped armor and rotating wheels?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an armored vehicle with sloped protective plates and rotating wheels.

The vehicle appears in a drawing from the late fifteenth century. Its conical, sloped armor was intended to deflect incoming projectiles, while multiple cannon openings allowed weapons to fire from inside the protected structure. The design resembles a large covered platform mounted on wheels.

A crew would have had to turn internal cranks to drive the vehicle. That arrangement created a major practical problem: the gearing shown in the drawing would make the vehicle difficult or impossible to move in the intended direction. Some historians think this may have been an error, a deliberate safeguard, or simply an unfinished design.

The machine was not deployed in battle. It is often popularly called Leonardo’s tank, but “armored vehicle” is more historically precise because it predates modern tanks by centuries and lacks an engine, tracks, and a proven battlefield system.