1. A robotic system comprising: a processor; a master control device having a master frame; an image capturing system having an image frame whose position and orientation relative to a fixed frame is determinable through one or more image frame transforms; and a tool disposed within a field of view of the image capturing system and having a tool frame whose position and orientation relative to the fixed frame is determinable through one or more tool frame transforms; all but one of the image and tool frame transforms being a known frame transform, because information for determining all dimensions and angles that are required for directly calculating the known frame transform is available for processing by the processor; and the one of the image and tool frame transforms being an unknown frame transform from a first frame to a second frame, because information for determining at least one dimension or angle required for directly calculating the unknown frame transform is not available for processing by the processor; and the processor being programmed to perform operations including: identifying pose indicating points of the tool from information in one or more images captured by the image capturing system; determining an estimated transform for the unknown frame transform by using the identified pose indicating points and each known image and tool frame transform, the estimated transform being characterized by a chain of frame relationships between the first frame and the second frame with each known image and tool frame transform relating its corresponding frames to one another and with the identified pose indicating points relating the tool frame to the image frame; updating a master-to-tool transform by using the estimated transform for the unknown frame transform and each known image and tool frame transform; and commanding movement of the tool in response to movement of the master control device by using the updated master-to-tool transform.