Error distribution and accuracy measure in navigation

Description

The present report contains a description of some statistical terms associate with the accuracy of a position fix in navigation. It summarizes the principal results of a series of statistical studies related to error distributions and accuracy measure in navigation. The material breaks up into four main parts. The first part provides an introduction to the problems associated with the need for statistical data analysis in navigation. The second section is devoted to error distributions. The distributions considered include the Normal, the Exponential, the two-parameter Gamma, the Double Exponential, the Compound and Composite distributions, the Rayleigh etc. Sections 2.1 to 2.9 introduce a few definitions of probability density functions, while the last section presents the application of these distributions to navigational problems. The third part bring in an exposition of the various accuracy measures which characterize uncertainty in navigation. These measures include the ellipsoids, the ellipses, the radial errors and some of the one-dimensional accuracy measure. Finally, the report concludes with some suggestions for the future. The purpose of this presentation is to collect, under one cover, most of the essential aspects of the available literature devoted to error distributions and accuracy measures in navigation.