1. A method of recognizing geometrically salient objects from sensed data points collected in a 3D environment comprising: sensing the 3D environment using a sensor that collects a plurality of sensed data points from the 3D environment, each sensed data point having spatial coordinate information in three dimensions x, y and z; populating a strip histogram grid having a plurality of strips, each strip having a z, an dx dimension and a dy dimension, wherein dx is a portion of an x dimension of the strip histogram grid and dy is a portion of a y dimension of the strip histogram grid, by assigning each sensed data point to a strip in the strip histogram grid that has x, y and z dimensions that encompass the spatial coordinate information of the respective assigned sensed data point; segmenting the strip histogram grid into a plurality of segmented regions, each segmented region comprising one strip or a group of neighboring strips having similar attributes; and determining for each strip in the strip histogram grid whether the respective strip has a smoothness S sm property; wherein the respective strip is determined as having the smoothness S sm property if a range in local height gradient S zslope for strips within a strip neighborhood of the respective strip is less than a threshold T z .