This paper presents the performance evaluation. optimal design. and complex obstacle detection of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring by introducing a new concept of effective beam width. It is assumed that a set of ultrasonic sensors of the same type are arranged along a circle of nonzero radius at regular spacings with their beams overlapped. First, the global positional uncertainty of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring is expressed by the average value of local positional uncertainty over the entire obstacle detection range. The effective beam width of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring is assessed as the beam width of a single ultrasonic sensor having the same amount of global positional uncertainty, from which a normalized obstacle detection performance index is defined. Second. using the defined index, the design parameters of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring are optimized for minimal positional uncertainty in obstacle detection. For a given number of ultrasonic sensors, the optimal radius of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring is determined, and for a given radius of an overlapped ultrasonic sensor ring, the optimal number of ultrasonic sensors is determined. Third, the decision rules of positional uncertainty zone for multiple obstacle detection are provided based on the inequality relationships among obstacle distances by three adjacent ultrasonic sensors. Using the provided rules, the obstacle outline detection is performed in a rather complex environment consisting of several obstacles of different shapes.