Advanced tools for waterway pilotage

Describes the operational characteristics and advantages of a new generation of electronic pilotage tools designed to increase navigation efficiency and maritime safety. Through a combination of GPS-based vessel tracking, wireless communications, electronic chart display, and retrieval of real-time vessel traffic services (VTS) information, waterway pilots now can have an extremely valuable aid to navigation. The entire system is contained in a simple-to-setup, portable unit. By using real-time navigation data, vessel traffic reports, and “silent” VTS information on the bridge, pilots are able to make better informed and more timely decisions that are based on a higher situation awareness. For waterways with heavy traffic demands, such as the Panama Canal, where traffic schedules are created based on average transit times tables and the availability of resources, electronic pilotage systems provide new-opportunities for increased traffic throughput and safety. Utilizing real-time reports of vessel positions, as well as status information generated by the carried-on units, vessel traffic schedulers, transit controllers, and pilots can work together to take advantage of opportunities that may arise for advancing the schedule and reducing transit times. Pilots are better equipped to avoid potentially dangerous situations such as may occur when two vessels meet in a constricted area. Also, transit schedulers and resource managers are able to modify schedules and dispatch resources by anticipating upcoming traffic situations, instead of reacting to events