The ranging systems measure range data in three-dimensional coordinate from target surface. These non-contact remote ranging systems is widely used in various automation applications, including military equipment, construction field, navigation, inspection, assembly, and robot vision. The active ranging systems using time of flight technique or light pattern illumination technique are complex and expensive, the passive systems based on stereo or focusing principle are time-consuming. The proposed algorithm, that is based on cross correlation of projection profile of vertical edge, provides advantages of fast and simple operation in the range acquisition. The results of experiment show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.