Caring for robots: How care comes to matter in human-machine interfacing.

Care robots promise to assist older people in an ageing society. This article investigates the socio-material conditions of care with robots by focusing on the usually invisible practices of human-machine interfacing. I define human-machine interfacing as the activities by roboticists and others to render interaction between robots and people possible in the first place. This includes, efforts to render prototypical arrangements of care 'robot-friendly'. In my video-assisted ethnography of human-robot interaction (HRI) experiments. I identify four types of interfacing practices, where care comes to matter: integrating the ephemeral entity that is 'a robot', helping it by way of mundane courtesies, making users 'fit' for interacting with it, and establishing corridors of interaction between the robot and people's bodies. I show that robots do not so much care for (older) people but rather, the other way around - people need to care for robots. Hence, care robots are not simply agents of care but also objects of care, rendering necessary a symmetrical analysis of human-machine interfacing. Furthermore, these practices do not merely reflect the prototypical state of the art in robotics. Rather, they indicate a more general mode of how robots and people interface. I argue that care with robots requires us to re-consider the exclusive focus on the human and at least complement it with care for the non-human and, incidentally, the robotic, too.

Photoredox-Catalyzed Four-Component Reaction for the Synthesis of Complex Secondary Amines.

The one-pot sulfonylation/aminoalkylation of styrene derivatives furnishing substituted γ-sulfonylamines was accomplished through a photoredox-catalyzed four-component reaction. Besides one molecule of water and the sodium counterion of the sulfinate, all atoms of the starting materials are transferred to the final product, rendering this process highly atom-efficient. The operationally simple protocol allows for the simultaneous formation of three new single bonds (C-S, C-N, and C-C) and therefore grants rapid access to structurally diverse products.

Visible Light-Induced Sulfonylation/Arylation of Styrenes in a Double Radical Three-Component Photoredox Reaction.

Simultaneous sulfonylation/arylation of styrene derivatives is achieved in a photoredox-catalyzed three-component reaction using visible light. A broad variety of difunctionalized products is accessible in mostly excellent yields and high diastereoselectivity. The developed reaction is scalable and suitable for the modification of styrene-functionalized biomolecules. Mechanistic investigations suggest the transformation to be operating through a designed sequence of radical formation and radical combination.

Photoredox Alkenylation of Carboxylic Acids and Peptides: Synthesis of Covalent Enzyme Inhibitors.

The synthesis of vinyl sulfones and (α,ß-unsaturated) nitriles from carboxylic acids was realized through oxidative decarboxylation with 1,4-dicyanoanthracene as an organic photoredox catalyst. Various types of C-radicals are generated and used to construct three different classes of potential covalent protease inhibitors. The procedure is functional group tolerant and applicable to natural products and druglike scaffolds. It may serve for the rapid construction of screening candidates as demonstrated by a three-step synthesis of the known protease inhibitor K11777.

Light-Induced Alkylation of (Hetero)aromatic Nitriles in a Transition-Metal-Free C-C-Bond Metathesis.

A light-induced C-C-σ-bond metathesis was achieved through transition-metal-free activation of an unstrained C(sp3)-C(sp3)-σ-bond in 1-benzyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines. A photoredox-mediated single-electron oxidation of these precursor amines yield radical cations which undergo a homolytic cleavage of a C(sp3)-C(sp3)-σ-bond rather than the well-known α-C-H-scission. The resulting carbon-centered radicals are used in the ipso-substitution of (hetero)aromatic nitriles proceeding through another single-electron transfer-mediated C-C-bond cleavage and formation.

Transition-Metal-Free Decarboxylative Photoredox Coupling of Carboxylic Acids and Alcohols with Aromatic Nitriles.

A transition-metal-free protocol for the redox-neutral light-induced decarboxylative coupling of carboxylic acids with (hetero)aromatic nitriles at ambient temperature is presented. A broad scope of acids and nitriles is accepted, and alcohols can be coupled in a similar fashion through their oxalate half esters. Various inexpensive sources of UV light and even sunlight can be used to achieve this C-C bond formation proceeding through a free radical mechanism.