AISPulse

Real-time AIS vessel tracking dashboard for Indian coastal waters — built with Go and Leaflet.js.

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Features

• Live vessel map — Leaflet.js with CartoDB dark/light tiles; vessel markers rotate to heading and are coloured by ship type
• WebSocket feed — real-time position updates pushed to all connected clients
• Vessel type filter — filter map and sidebar by Cargo, Tanker, Tug, Fishing, Passenger, Pilot, SAR
• Port boundary alerts — monitors 12 major Indian ports; toast notifications fire when a vessel enters or leaves a zone
• Speed history chart — inline SVG sparkline of the last 40 SOG readings per vessel
• Export track — download any vessel's breadcrumb trail as CSV or KML (Google Earth)
• Fleet stats — live counts of total, underway, anchored and moored vessels
• NMEA log — scrolling feed of raw AIS sentences as they arrive
• Dark / light mode — persisted in localStorage
• Built-in simulator — 20 named Indian coastal vessels wander the coast when no live feed is connected

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Screenshots

Dark mode · vessel detail panel · port zone circles

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Go 1.21, gorilla/websocket
AIS decoding	Custom 6-bit ASCII decoder (types 1/2/3, 5, 18, 24)
Frontend	Vanilla JS, Leaflet.js, CSS custom properties
Fonts	Roboto + Roboto Mono (Google Fonts)
Deployment	Docker, Render (free tier)

The entire web frontend is embedded in the Go binary via //go:embed — no separate file server needed.

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+

Run locally

git clone https://github.com/sujirex/aispulse.git
cd aispulse
go mod tidy
go run .

Open http://localhost:8080

The built-in simulator starts automatically with 20 vessels.

Command-line flags

Flag	Default	Description
-addr	:8080	HTTP listen address
-sim	true	Enable vessel simulator
-feed	(empty)	Live AIS TCP feed (e.g. data.aishub.net:5631)

Connect a live AIS feed

go run . -sim=false -feed data.aishub.net:5631

Register at aishub.net (free, non-commercial) to get access to the global AIS network.

Build a single binary

go build -o aispulse .
./aispulse -addr :8080

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Live Data Sources

AISPulse connects to any NMEA-over-TCP source:

• AISHub — free community network, register for TCP access
• RTL-SDR + AIS-catcher — own VHF receiver for local coverage (~20–40 NM)
• MarineTraffic / VesselFinder — commercial APIs (requires adapter)
• Indian VTMS feeds — port authority feeds via DGLL (authorised access)

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Monitored Port Zones

Kandla · Bhavnagar · Dahej · Hazira · Mumbai/JNPT · Mormugao · Kochi · Chennai · Visakhapatnam · Paradip · Haldia · Port Blair

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Deployment

Docker

docker build -t aispulse .
docker run -p 8080:8080 aispulse

Render (free)

1. Fork or push this repo to GitHub
2. New Web Service → connect repo → Runtime: Docker → Instance: Free
3. Deploy — live in ~5 minutes at https://your-app.onrender.com

Note: Render's free tier sleeps after 15 minutes of inactivity. Suitable for demos. For always-on hosting use Oracle Cloud Always Free + Cloudflare Tunnel.

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Project Structure

aispulse/
├── main.go              # Entry point, flags, goroutines
├── go.mod
├── Dockerfile
├── ais/
│   ├── decoder.go       # NMEA 6-bit AIS decoder (types 1/2/3/5/18/24)
│   ├── simulator.go     # Built-in vessel simulator (Indian coastal waters)
│   └── feeder.go        # TCP AIS feed connector
├── store/
│   └── store.go         # Thread-safe in-memory vessel registry + track history
└── server/
    ├── server.go        # HTTP server, routes, embedded static files
    ├── hub.go           # WebSocket hub (broadcast to all clients)
    ├── rest.go          # REST API (/api/vessels, /api/stats)
    └── web/
        ├── index.html   # Full dashboard SPA
        └── guide.html   # User guide

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API

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/vessels	GET	All vessels (no track)
/api/vessels/{mmsi}	GET	Single vessel with full track
/api/stats	GET	Fleet statistics
/ws	WS	Real-time vessel update stream

WebSocket message format

{
  "type": "vessel_update",
  "vessel": {
    "mmsi": 419000001,
    "name": "MUMBAI STAR",
    "lat": 18.94,
    "lon": 72.88,
    "sog": 12.4,
    "cog": 245.0,
    "shipTypeStr": "Cargo",
    "navStatusStr": "Under way using engine"
  },
  "raw": "!AIVDM,1,1,,B,15M2TR..."
}

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Built by

Suji Kumar C · sujikumar.com

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License

MIT