Model of Leonardo’s robot knight, alongside its internal gears, pulleys, and cables.

c. 1495

DA VINCI’S ROBOT KNIGHT

“Da Vinci’s armored Robot Knight sat up; opened its arms and closed them, perhaps in a grabbing motion; moved its head via a flexible neck; and opened its visor,” writes robotic engineer Mark Rosheim, “perhaps to reveal a frightening physiognomy. Fabricated of wood, brass, or bronze and leather, it was cable operated.”

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), the Italian Renaissance polymath, had interests that ranged from painting and architecture to anatomy and engineering. His journals include depictions and studies of musical instruments, crank mechanisms, and the aforementioned mechanical knight, drawn around the year 1495 in his Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex), a twelve-volume bound set of drawings and writings. The mechanism of the Leonardo robot design—which featured articulated joints and movable arms, jaw, and head—used a pulley system for moving the robot’s parts. The android wore German-Italian medieval armor, could sit up and down, and had more than one gear system that operated separately to control the upper and lower body. Leonardo sketched models for other automatons that included birds and carts.

Although we do not know if Leonardo’s mechanical knight was ever built, similar robots may have inspired other engineers, such as the Italo-Spanish engineer Juanelo Turriano (c. 1500–1585), who built a mechanical monk, which used cables and pulleys, for King Philip II of Spain, who attributed his son’s miraculous recovery from a serious head injury to the divine intervention of a Franciscan missionary named Didacus. Driven by a key-wound spring, the clockwork Didacus walks while moving his mouth and arms in silent prayer. Today he is exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and is still operational.

Reflecting on da Vinci’s robot knight, authors Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer write “Leonardo’s robot design was a culmination of his research into anatomy and geometry. What better way to combine mechanical science and human form? He took the proportions and relationships inherent in Roman architecture and applied them to the movement and life inherent in all living beings. In a way, the robot was Vitruvian Man brought to life.”