Papers
16
Total Citations
417
H-Index
9
About
Pedro La Hera is a robotics and automation researcher whose work spans two interconnected domains: underactuated mechanical systems and the automation of forestry machinery. With over 380 citations across his published work, La Hera has established himself as a significant contributor to both theoretical robotics and applied industrial automation. Early in his career, La Hera made foundational contributions to the control of underactuated robots, developing novel approaches for systems like the Furuta pendulum, the inertia wheel pendulum, and biped walkers. His 2009 work on parallel elastic actuators (85 citations) offered an elegant solution to actuation limitations in robotic systems, while his research on stable walking gaits for planar biped robots (52 citations) advanced humanoid locomotion theory using virtual holonomic constraints. Perhaps most notably, La Hera pioneered the application of robotic motion planning to forestry crane automation, recognizing that skilled machine operation could be systematized and eventually fully automated. His 2014 paper on crane trajectory planning (87 citations) laid critical groundwork for this vision, which culminated in his landmark 2024 study documenting the world's first unmanned autonomous forestry machine — a genuinely historic achievement bridging academic robotics and real-world industrial transformation.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2
- 3New approach for swinging up the Furuta pendulum: Theory and experiments58 citations · 2009
- 4Stable Walking Gaits for a Three-Link Planar Biped Robot With One Actuator52 citations · 2013
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9Advances in using robots in forestry operations11 citations · 2019
- 10