Autonomous robots are intelligent machines that are capable of performing desired tasks by themselves, without explicit human control. This paper presents design and implementation of the ASVR (Autonomous Sonar Based Vehicle Robot). ASVR is a microcontroller based, programmable mobile robot that can sense and react to its environment and can work in partially known and unpredictable environments. A novel algorithm based on ultrasonic sensors and simple calculations for real-time obstacle detection and avoidance that is intended for mobile robots is also outlined. Also a novel technique is proposed and implemented for steering referencing of vehicle. The design is implemented in air using ultrasonic sensors but can be adapted using sonar to underwater environments where it has important applications such as deep sea maintenance and reconnaissance tasks. The paper also presents performance results of a prototype developed to prove the design concept.