SUMMARYThis paper proposes a method of 3-dimensional measurement of a planar surface by using two fixed light sources and a TV camera. A set of two images is recorded by the camera switching on each light alternately. The peak of the luminance distribution in each image is detected, and the orientation and distance of the planar surface are calculated. The position of the peak of a luminance distribution can be estimated accurately by using an image processing. The light sources can be conventional apparatus with no particular structure. The method is simple and suitable for a vision system on an indoor mobile robot.