The invention discloses a circle detection method based on
edge detection and fitted curve clustering. The method includes the following steps that first, the edge of a grey-
scale map is detected, edge curves with the pixel number smaller than a pixel threshold are removed, and then a curve set T is obtained; second, the
gradient direction vector of each edge point in the curve set T in the grey-
scale map is calculated and recorded; third, candidate curve marking and parameter fitting based on edge
gradient direction constraint are performed, wherein in the third step, firstly, estimated circle centers and estimated radii are calculated, secondly, the direction vectors of the edge points of each curve to the corresponding estimated circle center are calculated, thirdly, candidate points are marked based on the
gradient direction constraint, fourthly, a candidate curve set is determined, and fifthly, circle parameters of the candidate curves are calibrated; fourth, the candidate curves are clustered and fused, and then the fused circle center and the fused
radius are obtained; fifth, the detection result is output according to the completeness degree of the circle. The method has the advantages of being good in adaptability, high in calculation speed, good in
noise immunity, little in
resource consumption and capable of being widely applied in the field of circular curve detection.