The main factors affecting the error of Doppler velocity measurement mainly come from the measurement errors of GNSS data, influence of different motion states on GNSS velocity measurement and the noise of different receiver types. To improve the precision of GNSS velocity estimation, an algorithm of adaptive robust Kalman filter based on the PDOP was put forward. PDOP value as well as the number of satellite in each epoch are used as a criterion in the velocity processing.While the PDOP value is greater than the threshold value, which means the observation accuracy is low, then the robust Kalman filter based on IGG -III scheme is introduced. While the PDOP value is between the threshold values, which means the observation precision is normal, adaptive factor could be determined normally, and the single-factor three-stage adaptive model is applied for Kalman filtering. If the above two conditions are not consistent, it indicates that the prediction accuracy of the local epoch satellite is high, and Kalman filtering can be directly used. Through the experiment of shipborne GNSS velocity measurement, it was proved that comparing with conventional least square, the algorithm based on the adaptive robust Kalman filtering can improve the accuracy and stability of the GNSS velocity determination.This contribution has been peer-reviewed. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W10-1005-2020 | © Authors 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.