For the factors of complex image background, unobvious end-effector characteristics and uneven illumination in the pose detection of parallel robot based on binocular vision, the detection speed, and accuracy cannot meet the requirement of the closed-loop control. So a pose detection method based on improved RANSAC algorithm is presented. First, considering that the image of parallel robot is rigid and has multiple corner points, the Harris–Scale Invariant Feature Transform algorithm is adopted to realize image prematching. The feature points are extracted by Harris and matched by Scale Invariant Feature Transform to realize good accuracy and real-time performance. Second, for the mismatching from prematching, an improved RANSAC algorithm is proposed to refine the prematching results. This improved algorithm can overcome the disadvantages of mismatching and time-consuming of the conventional RANSAC algorithm by selecting feature points in separated grids of the images and predetecting to validate provisional model. The improved RANSAC algorithm was applied to a self-developed novel 3-degrees of freedom parallel robot to verify the validity. The experiment results show that, compared with the conventional algorithm, the average matching time decreases by 63.45%, the average matching accuracy increases by 15.66%, the average deviations of pose detection in Y direction, Z direction, and roll angle [Formula: see text] decrease by 0.871 mm, 0.82 mm, and 0.704°, respectively, using improved algorithm to refine the prematching results. The real-time performance and accuracy of pose detection of parallel robot can be improved.