What was Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid mechanical invention known as?

Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid mechanical invention was known as the robotic knight.

Leonardo designed the machine around 1495, probably for a pageant at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The figure wore armor and was operated by an internal system of pulleys, cables, gears, and levers. Reconstructions indicate that it could sit, stand, raise its arms, move its head, and open and close its jaw.

No complete original machine survives, and the design was reconstructed from Leonardo’s anatomical and mechanical sketches. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working version based on the drawings and demonstrated its movements.

The robotic knight is often called the world’s first humanoid robot, but that label uses modern terminology. Leonardo’s machine was an automaton designed for entertainment and spectacle, not an autonomous artificial-intelligence system.