Showing AIS positions of vessels

[vshcherb]

This plugin ("AIS vessel tracker") is intended for usage at a boat at sea or river. It displays positions and other data of surrounding vessels that transmit its data via AIS (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_identification_system). The plugin requires an external AIS receiver that is connected with the device running OsmAnd.

The plugin receives data from the AIS receiver using NMEA network protocol, decodes it and displays symbols of vessels or other AIS objects at the map. In a context menu, all other decoded information is shown. Similar functionality is common in marine navigation systems, like Garmin Navionics or OpenCPN.

It utilizes one additional Java library “marine-api” for decoding of the NMEA datagrams.

The functionality may be interesting for sailors or other yachtsmen, especially in combination with the nautical map style. I tested it in my recent holidays at Baltic Sea and also at home using the signals of vessels from a nearby river. If needed, I can provide screenshots.

I would appreciate if the plugin will be accepted to the OsmAnd release.

[vshcherb]

#21556