Hierarchical controller for obstacle avoidance task in WMRs considering actuators and power electronics subsystems: When artificial potential fields approach is used

•In this paper, a three-level hierarchical controller that solves the obstacle avoidance task in mobile robots and that considers power electronics is proposed for the first time.•The proposed controller has been satisfactorily evaluated through a co-simulation between Matlab and PSpice software.•The hierarchical controller solves the obstacle avoidance task even when disturbances are introduced into the power stage.•A classical artificial potential field is used to model environmental obstacles, while the hierarchical controller takes into account its gradient.•The proposed controller is assessed with a two-level controller demonstrating that its performance is better than, or at leastsimilar to, the performance of the second one.