KANO, Nigeria — Isah Barde-Auwal, a final-year student at Baze University, has developed a humanoid robot in Abuja. He says the system is designed for autonomous and remotely controlled tasks, including work in hazardous environments.
Barde-Auwal, 21, discussed the project during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Monday, August 24, 2026.
The computer engineering student, who is from Kano State, named the robot QX Alpha. He described it as an industrial-grade system combining robotics and artificial intelligence.
“QX Alpha is a robotics and AI ecosystem that I am building to develop affordable technologies that can solve real-world problems, especially the challenges we face in Africa,” he said.
Barde-Auwal said the project received support through a scholarship from the National Information Technology Development Agency under its Technology Innovation Support Programme.
His work with robots began before he entered the programme. In 2022, he built a remotely controlled humanoid exoskeleton and presented it to the agency’s director-general.
According to Barde-Auwal, that earlier project helped him obtain the scholarship, which provided access to equipment and other resources for his subsequent work in robotics and artificial intelligence.
QX Alpha operates on the Robot Operating System, commonly known as ROS. Barde-Auwal said it also uses technology he identified as Smart Machine for Autonomous and Remote Control Technology, or SMART.
He said the robot can move, communicate and respond to its surroundings. It can function independently or be directed remotely by a human operator, he added.
Barde-Auwal said security work was among the project’s initial areas of focus.
The underlying technology could be adapted for surveillance, bomb detection and assignments in locations considered too dangerous for people, he said.
Such operations would require changes to the prototype, according to Barde-Auwal. He said the robot would not be deployed for security assignments in its present humanlike configuration.
Instead, its body could be strengthened and modified for particular environments while retaining the central robotics platform, he said.
The proposed applications have not been described as having undergone operational deployment.
Barde-Auwal said he builds his projects with a mixture of components obtained locally and parts imported into Nigeria.
His plans also include establishing a platform through which young Nigerians interested in robotics could receive training, use technical resources and develop their own systems.
