The AI hype of recent years has also fuelled interest in social robotics. When robots are linked to AI models, LLMs gain a physical embodiment and simulate conversational partners even more convincingly. In the field of educational technology, the question quickly arises whether robotic assistance systems can be meaningfully deployed in schools. BUSA aims to explore the potentials, challenges, opportunities, and risks of social robots in the context of religious education. This takes place within research-based learning projects with students at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

The robot and the project are named after the theologian Roberto Busa SJ, one of the pioneers of the Digital Humanities, who as early as the 1950s used IBM mainframes to study the works of Thomas Aquinas.

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