Tracker-Based Surgical Navigation

Systems and methods for tracking an object in a workspace. A tracker is disposed relative to the object and includes a predefined geometry of markers having first and second marker arrangements, each including three markers in a collinear relationship. A camera with a view of the tracker generates an image comprising blobs, where a subset of the blobs is directly generated from the markers of the tracker, and a remainder is not. Blob groups each including three of the blobs and satisfying a collinear criterion are identified as candidates for having been directly generated by the marker arrangements. The subset of blobs is differentiated from the remainder of blobs based on the blob groups and the predefined marker geometry, and the differentiated subset of blobs is assigned to the markers of the tracker. The pose of the tracker in the workspace is then estimated based on the assigned blobs.