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around 1495

Leonardo's mechanical knight

Duchy of Milan · Humanoid

Around 1495 in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci designed for Duke Ludovico Sforza a mechanical knight in armour that was meant to sit up, move its arms and head, and open its visor. Only fragments of sketches of the design survive, in the Codex Atlanticus. [1][2][3][4][5]

Sources

  1. Medievalists.net: Renaissance Robotics: Leonardo da Vinci's Lost Knight and Enlivened Materiality
  2. Mark Elling Rosheim (Ross-Hime Designs): Leonardo's programmable automaton, a reconstruction
  3. Springer: Rosheim, Leonardo's Lost Robots – kapitola Leonardo's Knight
  4. Moran, M. E.: Evolution of robotic arms (Journal of Robotic Surgery, PMC)
  5. Wikipedie: Leonardo's robot

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Leonardo's mechanical knight
Photo by Erik Möller. Leonardo da Vinci. Mensch - Erfinder - Genie exhibit, Berlin 2005. · Public domain · source