AtoN

An AtoN, or aid to navigation, is a device or signal used in maritime operations to assist navigators in determining their position, safe course, or to warn of dangers and obstructions. Common examples include buoys, lighthouses, and day beacons.

This article will explain how to interact with the Gatehouse Maritime API to create, read, update, or delete AtoNs, with concrete code examples of how to do it.

Content overview:

• Create monitoring of physical- or virtual AtoN

The base URL for the following endpoints is:

https://mdmdemo.gatehousemaritime.com/api/config/aton

POST /

The creation of a physical- and virtual AtoN is done through the same endpoint, however the payload defines whether the AtoN is physical or virtual. The <virtual> field defines whether the AtoN is virtual or physical, if it is set to 1, then it is virtual and physical if set to 0.

The following list depicts the fields and a small description of it.

• alarm_setup
  • Type: list of JSON objects
  • A list of users to notify when an event occurs from the AtoN
• description
  • Type: String
  • A text describing the AtoN
• failure_timeout
  • Type: Integer (Seconds)
  • The least amount of seconds between two failure triggers from the AtoN.
• groups
  • Type: List of Strings
  • The list contains id’s of the groups that should be notified once a trigger occurs.
• mmsi
  • Type: Integer
  • The MMSI of the physical AtoN.
• name
  • Type: String
  • The name of the AtoN
• position
  • Type: JSON Object
  • An object specifying the latitude and longitude of the AtoN
• pss
  • Type: List of String
  • The ids of the PSS’s
• schedule
  • Type: List of JSON Objects
  • The list defines the scheduled intervals where the AtoN should be active.
• size_a
  • Type: Integer
  • Size A represents the distance from the transponder to the starboard (right) side of the AtoN
• size_b
  • Type: Integer
  • Size B represents the distance from the transponder to the starboard (left) side of the AtoN
• size_c
  • Type: Integer
  • Size C represents the distance from the transponder to the stern (back) of the AtoN
• size_d
  • Type: Integer
  • Size D represents the distance from the transponder to the bow (front) of the AtoN
• type
  • Type: Integer
  • Defines the AtoN message type
• virtual
  • Type: Integer
  • This defines whether the AtoN is physical, virtual or synthetic. If it is set to 0, then it is physical, if it is 1, it is virtual, and if it is 2, it is synthetic
• warning_timeout
  • Type: Integer (Seconds)
  • When a warning is triggered it will be yellow on the map for the amount of time specified by the value.

Code Example (Physical AtoN):

import requests

url = "https://mdmdemo.gatehousemaritime.com/api/config/aton"

headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Basic <credentials>',
    'accept': 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
}
json_data = {
    "broadcast_interval": 360,
    "description": "",
    "failure_timeout": 780,
    "groups": [],
    "mmsi": 992111939,
    "name": "test1",
    "owner": "",
    "position": {
        "coordinates": [
            6.3643,
            54.6808,
        ],
        "type": "Point",
    },
    "size_a": 0,
    "size_b": 0,
    "size_c": 0,
    "size_d": 0,
    "off_pos_alarm": 0,
    "virtual": 0,
    "alarm_setup": [],
    "warning_timeout": 420,
}

response = requests.post(
    url=url,
    headers=headers,
    json=json_data,
)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Code Example (Virtual AtoN)

import requests

url = "https://mdmdemo.gatehousemaritime.com/api/config/aton"

headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Basic <credentials>',
    'accept': 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
}
json_data = json_data = {
    'chainedaton': 'feed6b6f-1d0e-4487-ab6b-e2a0ec3ad6bf',
    'broadcast_interval': 360,
    'description': '',
    'enabled': True,
    'failure_timeout': 780,
    'groups': [
        '50922b3b-565e-4a5c-8183-9a10b9c57aeb',
    ],
    'mmsi': 123456,
    'name': 'Test123',
    'owner': '',
    'position': {
        'coordinates': [
            9.89167,
            53.54222,
        ],
        'type': 'Point',
    },
    'pss': [
        'feed6b6f-1d0e-4487-ab6b-e2a0ec3ad6bf',
    ],
    'schedule': [
        {
            'start': '2026-02-25T12:00:00.000Z',
            'end': '2026-02-28T12:00:00.000Z',
        },
    ],
    'size_a': 2,
    'size_b': 2,
    'size_c': 2,
    'size_d': 2,
    'type': 2,
    'virtual': 1,
    'warning_timeout': 420,
    'uuid': '',
}

response = requests.post(
    url=url,
    headers=headers,
    json=json_data,
)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Response Sample

200
{'uuid': '984fe7c1-7086-4bff-86ef-3942511a1b73'}