A method for localizing and estimating a pose of a known object in a field of view of a vision system is described, and includes developing a processor-based model of the known object, capturing a bitmap image file including an image of the field of view including the known object, extracting features from the bitmap image file, matching the extracted features with features associated with the model of the known object, localizing an object in the bitmap image file based upon the extracted features, clustering the extracted features of the localized object, merging the clustered extracted features, detecting the known object in the field of view based upon a comparison of the merged clustered extracted features and the processor-based model of the known object, and estimating a pose of the detected known object in the field of view based upon the detecting of the known object.