Analysis of the effects of the baseline length accuracy in integer ambiguity resolution for GPS attitude determination system

In the GPS attitude determination system, the baseline length constraints can be used efficiently to reduce the search space. It is possible by adopting the assumptions that the baseline length doesn't change and the true baseline length is precisely known. But in real situation, the baseline length might be changed by many reasons and it is impossible to measure the true baseline length because there exists measurement error and antenna phase centre movement. In order to analyze the effect of the baseline length accuracy, one needs to know the relation between the accuracy of the baseline length and success rates of the integer ambiguity resolution. In this paper, the effect of the baseline length accuracy to the integer ambiguity resolution in the attitude determination system is analyzed by empirical method. The results show that the margins in the baseline length accuracy is less than a few cm which implies that one should take great cares when applying the attitude determination system to the flexible structures.