Leonardo's robot, or Leonardo's mechanical knight ( Italian: ''Automa cavaliere'', lit. "Automaton knight"), was a humanoid

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

designed and possibly constructed by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...

around the year 1495. Leonardo-Robot3

The design notes for the robot appear in sketchbooks that were rediscovered in the 1950s. Leonardo is said to have displayed the machine at a celebration hosted by

Ludovico Sforza Ludovico Maria Sforza (; 27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508), also known as Ludovico il Moro (; "the Moor"). "Arbiter of Italy", according to the expression used by Guicciardini,

at the court of Milan in 1495. The robot knight could stand, sit, raise its visor and independently manoeuvre its arms, and had an anatomically correct jaw. The entire robotic system was operated by a series of pulleys and cables. Since the discovery of the sketchbook, the robot has been built faithfully based on Leonardo's design and was found to be fully functional.Rosheim; Mark Elling. ''Leonardo's Lost Robots''. Springer, 2006, p. 69. The robot is described as being clad in German-Italian

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

armor, and is able to make several human-like motions. It is partially a result of Leonardo's anatomical research in the Canon of Proportions as described in the ''

Vitruvian Man The ''Vitruvian Man'' ( it, L'uomo vitruviano; ) is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to . Inspired by the writings by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two s ...

''.

References

Historical robots Humanoid robots Leonardo da Vinci projects Robots of Italy {{robo-stub