Acknowledging the importance of sustainability and implementing measures to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 represent a holistic approach to promoting peace and prosperity for the planet and its inhabitants. LCA is a valuable tool for organisations to enhance sustainability and reduce environmental impact. There has been a notable increase in LCA research subjects, indicating a recognition of its significance in promoting sustainability. The field has experienced a significant expansion in the past decade, with a 30% annual percent growth rate in LCA publications since 2010. In the most recent 4 years alone, 47% of all LCA publications since 1991 were produced. This paper presents a comprehensive review of LCA research from 1991 to 2022, with a specific focus on the period from 2019 to 2022. The study identifies research avenues and trends in LCA research using diverse bibliometric analysis techniques alongside content examination and the SciVal topic clusters prominence indicator. This comprehensive approach reveals evolving trends, such as an increased emphasis on practical applications for global sustainability goals, LCA’s expansion into bio-based materials due to plastic pollution concerns, and quantification of circular economy benefits in solid waste management. Moreover, deeper exploration of energy-related sustainability aspects and the integration of LCA into early product development for eco-conscious design are observed. These trends signify widespread LCA adoption across industries to address energy and design-related sustainability challenges. The study acknowledges interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, industry, and governments, shaping a robust LCA research landscape. China’s heightened contributions as a leading contributor to the field have reshaped the global LCA landscape mirrored in the evolving prominence of journals, institutes, and funding organisations.

The protocol data rate governing data storage devices will increase to over 12 Gb/s by 2013 thereby imposing unmanageable cost and performance burdens on future digital data storage systems. The resulting performance bottleneck can be substantially reduced by conveying high-speed data optically instead of electronically. A novel active pluggable 82.5 Gb/s aggregate bit rate optical connector technology, the design and fabrication of a compact electro-optical printed circuit board to meet exacting specifications, and a method for low cost, high precision, passive optical assembly are presented. A demonstration platform was constructed to assess the viability of embedded electro-optical midplane technology in such systems including the first ever demonstration of a pluggable active optical waveguide printed circuit board connector. High-speed optical data transfer at 10.3125 Gb/s was demonstrated through a complex polymer waveguide interconnect layer embedded into a 262 mm × 240 mm × 4.3 mm electro-optical midplane. Bit error rates of less than 10^-12 and optical losses as low as 6 dB were demonstrated through nine multimode polymer wave guides with an aggregate data bandwidth of 92.8125 Gb/s.

Awareness of environmental issues has led to increasing interest from composite researchers in using “greener” materials to replace synthetic fiber reinforcements and petrochemical polymer matrices. Natural fiber bio-based thermoplastic composites could be an appropriate choice with advantages including reducing environmental impacts, using renewable resources and being recyclable. The choice of polymer matrix will significantly affect the cost, manufacturing process, mechanical properties and durability of the composite system. The criteria for appropriate monomers are based on the processing temperature and viscosity, polymer mechanical properties, recyclability, etc. This review considers the selection of thermoplastic monomers suitable for in situ polymerization during resin, now monomer, infusion under flexible tooling (RIFT, now MIFT), with a primary focus on marine composite applications. Given the systems currently available, methyl methacrylate (MMA) may be the most suitable monomer, especially for marine composites. MMA has low process temperatures, a long open window for infusion, and low moisture absorption. However, end-of-life recovery may be limited to matrix depolymerization. Bio-based MMA is likely to become commercially available in a few years. Polylactide (PLA) is an alternative infusible monomer, but the relatively high processing temperature may require expensive consumable materials and could compromise natural fiber properties.

Purpose: The paper aims to propose a system that uses a combination of techniques to suggest weld requirements for ships parts. These suggestions are evaluated, decisions are made and then weld parameters are sent to a program generator.Design/methodology/approach: A pattern recognition system recognizes shipbuilding parts using shape contour information. Fourier‐descriptors provide information and neural networks make decisions about shapes.Findings: The system has distinguished between various parts and programs have been generated so that the methods have proved to be valid approaches.Practical implications: The new system used a rudimentary curvature metric that measured Euclidean distance between two points in a window but the improved accuracy and ease of implementation can benefit other applications concerning curve approximation, node tracing, and image processing, but especially in identifying images of manufactured parts with distinct corners.Originality/value: A new proposed system has been presented that uses image processing techniques in combination with a computer‐aided design model to provide information to a multi‐intelligent decision module. This module will use different criteria to determine a best weld path. Once the weld path has been determined then the program generator and post‐processor can be used to send a compatible program to the robot controller. The progress so far is described.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of simple expert systems to improve the performance of tele-operated mobile robots and ultrasonic sensor systems. The expert systems interpret data from the joystick and sensors and identify potentially hazardous situations and then recommend safe courses of action so that tele-operated mobile-robot tasks can be completed more quickly. Design/methodology/approach: The speed of a tele-operator in completing progressively more complicated driving tasks is investigated while using a simple expert system. Tele-operators were timed completing a series of tasks using a joystick to control a mobile robot through a simple expert system that assisted them with driving the robot while using ultrasonic sensors to avoid obstacles. They either watched the robot while operating it or sat at a computer and viewed scenes remotely on a screen from a camera mounted on the robot. Tele-operators completed tests with the simple expert system and the sensors connected. The system used an umbilical cable to connect to the robot. Findings: The simple expert systems consistently performed faster than the other systems. Results are compared with the most recently published results and show a significant improvement. In addition, in simple environments, tele-operators performed better without a sensor system to assist them but in more complicated environments than tele-operators performed better with the sensor systems to assist. Research limitations/implications: Simple expert systems are shown to improve the operation of a tele-operated mobile robot with an obstacle avoidance systems fitted. Practical implications: Tele-operated systems rely heavily on visual feedback and experienced operators. This paper investigates how to make tasks easier. Simple expert systems are shown to improve the operation of a tele-operated mobile robot. The paper also suggests that the amount of sensor support should be varied depending on circumstances. Originality/value: The simple expert systems are shown in this paper to improve the operation of a tele-operated mobile robot. Tele-operators completed tests with the simple expert system and the sensors connected. The results are compared with a tele-operator driving a mobile robot without any assistance from the expert systems or sensors and they show a significant improvement.