A discrimination test procedure for ambiguity resolution on-the-fly

Ambiguity validation tests include the acceptance test and discrimination t est, which are both important steps in the Global Positioning System ambigu ity resolution process. An ambiguity discrimination test procedure based on a test statistic which is constructed by the difference (not the ratio as used in current procedures) between the minimum and second minimum quadrati c form of the residuals in ambiguity identification, and its standard devia tion, is proposed. The distribution function of the proposed test statistic is theoretically identified as a standard normal distribution when the kno wn a priori variance factor is used, or as a Student's t distribution when the estimated variance factor is used. With this procedure, the ambiguity d iscrimination test is based on a more rigorous test statistic whose critica l value can be calculated with any chosen level of significance. Test resul ts indicate that the proposed ambiguity discrimination test procedure is re liable for use in ambiguity resolution on-the-fly.