Da Vinci’s Lost Robot

Originally created as a test to prove to himself that man’s physical body could be imitated by mechanics in the same way, Da Vinci built his robot and dressed it as a knight in order to showcase it at the parties of his patron Lodovico Sforz and entertain guests who could see it in working mode. Powered by a crank mechanism at the back of the robot, Da Vinci presumably directed the mechanism at such parties in order to impress the guests. Utilizing his studies and theories in anatomy and kinaesthetics, Da Vinci designed the robot under the assumption that the human body was a mechanism made of a series of pulleys and levers and implemented this same idea during its creation in order to make it move properly.

Finally built in 1495, Da Vinci created his knight robot with the ability to sit, stand, walk, moves its head side to side, raise its arms up and down, and open and close its mouth. Created using several systems to move differing parts of the body, Da Vinci used a four factor system to control the wrists, hands, shoulders and elbows as well as a tri-factor system which controlled the knees, ankles and hips, all of which was motivated via a crank at the back. Although no doubt brilliant, Da Vinci’s robot was lost or broken and only the designs and notes remain.

Inspired by the designs for Da Vinci’s robot knight, NASA will be implementing the use of his designs for their own robots, referred to as anthrobots, in order to run their future space station and assist in colonizing Mars. NASA has depended heavily on Da Vinci’s designs for the development and creation of their own robots.

The Painted Word