Which Leonardo da Vinci machine was a humanoid automaton designed in armor?

Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid automaton designed in armor was the mechanical knight.

Leonardo designed the mechanical knight in Milan around 1495, probably for a court spectacle organized under Ludovico Sforza. The machine was placed inside armor and used a system of cables, pulleys, and gears to perform human-like actions, such as sitting, standing, and moving its arms.

The design is known from Leonardo’s notes and drawings, including material in the Codex Atlanticus. No original robot knight has survived, so its exact capabilities remain partly uncertain. In 2002, roboticist Mark Rosheim built a working reconstruction based on Leonardo’s plans.

The knight is often described as an early humanoid robot, but it was a mechanical automaton rather than a modern programmable robot. It also differs from Leonardo’s self-propelled cart, which was a wheeled machine intended to move independently.