Piloting the Panama Canal today

The advent of inexpensive and reliable data processing, communications and navigation technologies has presented an opportunity to enhance significantly the safety and efficiency of Panama Canal operations. A traffic management and control system based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed at the Volpe Center. (The US Department of Transportation's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center is located in Cambridge, MA.) It has been installed and tested with great success. The system utilizes augmented GPS information and a complex two-way data link to direct key traffic management information wherever needed along the 50-mile length of the Canal.