A 19-YEAR-OLD Zambian girl has caught the attention of Africa after developing a robot that can help make mining safer through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Lydia Mabuya, a young Lusaka innovator came up with a robot she is calling Crowbot which can ease the performance of tasks while maintaining safety of human lives underground.
On Tuesday, her Crowbot earned her a third prize in the Presidential African Youth in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Competition under the AI and Innovation in Mining category, competing with Africa’s great minds in South Africa, which she attended virtually.
Speaking to #Kalemba in an interview, Lydia shared that the idea came up after a conversation with her friend who studies mining engineering and was worried about working underground.
“She was telling me her fears of going underground, and that is when it hit me to say what if AI could do the dangerous part instead?” Lydia shared with #Kalemba.
She explained that the Crowbot uses AI technology that can be controlled using a phone, laptop or even voice commands to perform tasks and does not need much human effort to operate.
Her goal, she said is not to replace people’s jobs but instead to make mining safer as it would also allow people to learn new skills to operate advanced technology.
Unlike most girls her age who played with dolls, Lydia during her childhood enjoyed disassembling and dismantling things like TV remotes to understand how they worked.
By the time she was in her eighth grade, she already started learning how to code and her curiosity for problem-solving have continued to grow ever since.
It took Lydia about six months to develop the Crowbot, which she hopes will one day be used in Zambia’s mining industry to reduce the risks faced by workers.
Lydia and another young innovator, Nakabimba Chinkuli, made history by becoming the first Zambians to reach the finals of the Presidential African Youth in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Competition.
Nakabimba represented the country in the Innovation in Construction and Architecture category.
Like Lydia, the 27-year-old innovator came out third AI Driven Asphalt Performance Prediction project putting ‘Zambia Kuchalo’.
By George Musonda
Kalemba October 30, 2025
