1. A method for approximating a target object's pose from a range measurement device generated image of a target environment comprising the steps of: generating a range image of the target environment; extracting a binary map from the range image; determining the location of at least one target object silhouette; iteratively applying stages of binary templates to each target object silhouette with each stage representing a range of possible poses of the target object; wherein each stage represents a higher spatial fidelity than the previous stage; such that each stage reduces a number of possible poses of the target object; and approximating the target object's pose based on a set of binary templates that best matches the target object silhouette.