Offshore Systems International (Vancouver, Canada) and ARINC Inc. (San Diego, California) will jointly develop advanced portable electronic chart navigation tools for maritime pilots. As maritime traffic levels increase, many of the busier ports, such as Houston, New Orleans, and San Francisco, are upgrading their vessel traffic management systems – the maritime equivalent to air traffic control. The portable navigation system will supplement this modernization process.

ARINC’s PilotMate® is a highly accurate positioning and heading system suitable for both portable and permanent installations. This existing technology in combination with Offshore’s seamless and simultaneous electronic chart technology will produce an improved system allowing pilots and ship handlers to achieve a position accuracy of better than three meters and a heading accuracy of better than one half of a degree.

Ship's position is determined using differential global positioning system technology. Ship's heading is computed using ARINC’s patented techniques for measurements from two GPS antennas separated by as little as one meter. The presentation of the position and orientation of a vessel remains accurate regardless of whether it is moving forward, astern, sideways, or is dead stopped. The system can be easily carried aboard a ship and installed in a few minutes or it can be permanently mounted on a vessel.