This paper presents a neural network approach, which was named PRONET, to 3D object recognition and pose calculation. 3D objects are represented using a set of centroidal profile patterns that describe the boundary of the 2D views taken from evenly distributed view points. PRONET consists of the training stage and the execution stage. In the training stage, a three-layer feed-forward neural network is trained with the centroidal profile patterns using an error back-propagation method. In the execution stage, by matching a centroidal profile pattern of the given image with the best fitting centroidal profile pattern using the neural network, the identity and approximate orientation of the real object, such as a workpiece in arbitrary pose, are obtained. In the matching procedure, line-to-line correspondence between image features and 3D CAD features are also obtained. An iterative model posing method then calculates the more exact pose of the object based on initial orientation and correspondence.