Aiming at the problems of Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) observation errors and inaccurate kinematic model in ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, this paper proposed an improved robust adaptive cubature Kalman filter (IRACKF). Robust and adaptive filtering can weaken the influence of observed outliers and kinematic model errors on filtering, respectively. However, their application conditions are different, and improper use may reduce positioning accuracy. Therefore, this paper designed a sliding window recognition scheme based on polynomial fitting, which can process the observation data in real-time to identify error types. Simulation and experimental results indicate that compared to the robust CKF, adaptive CKF, and robust adaptive CKF, the IRACKF algorithm reduces the position error by 38.0%, 45.1%, and 25.3%, respectively. The proposed IRACKF algorithm significantly improves the positioning accuracy and stability of the UWB system.