Prerequisites

Requirements

Before we get started with the guide, there are a few things that you should already be familiar with. You don’t need to be an expert in all of these, but you should have at least some experience with most of them.

• Some type of programming experience. It doesn’t matter what language, but you should have at least some experience with programming in general. It will be easier if it is something like Rust, C or C++, but experience with Python will still be helpful. (Block-coding will not be sufficient btw)

• Basic knowledge about you robot is necessary. You should know what motors, sensors, and other components you have on your robot, and how to connect them to the brain.

Now, if you have experience with all of these, great! You should be able to follow the guide without too much trouble. If you are missing one or more of these, don’t worry! You can still follow the guide, but you may need to do some additional research or learning on the side to fill in the gaps. I will try to provide links to resources that can help you with that, but it will be up to you to do the learning. If you have any questions or need help, feel free to reach out to me on my github profile. Now, let’s get started with the rest of the guide!

Installing Rust

In order to use Vexide, you’ll need a Rust toolchain (cargo, rustc, etc…) installed on your computer. To install Rust on your system, follow the instructions here.

If you're a Windows user

On Windows, you need Visual Build Tools to compile and run Rust code. Usually, the rust installer will prompt you to install it automatically. However, if you skip this step you can still install it from below.

Visual Build Tools

Install Cargo-V5

Cargo

Just using cargo:

cargo install cargo-v5

but if you have Cargo Binstall:

cargo binstall cargo-v5

MacOS/Linux

Using an install script:

curl -fsSL https://vexide.dev/install.sh | sh -

or using Homebrew:

brew install vexide/vexide/cargo-v5

Windows

Using an install script:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
irm https://vexide.dev/install.ps1 | iex

Starting the Project

To start a new project, run the following command in your terminal:

cargo v5 new my_project

After running this, you should have a new folder named my-project (or whatever you named your project). Open that folder in a code editor of your choice. If you don’t have a code editor, we recommend starting with Visual Studio Code or Zed.

If you’ve worked in a rust project before, this file structure should be somewhat familiar to you.

• Directorymy_project

  • Directory.cargo

    • config.toml
  • Directory.github

    • Directoryworkflows

      • rust.yml
  • Directorysrc

    • main.rs The entrypoint file of your program’s source code.
  • .envrc
  • .gitignore
  • Cargo.lock
  • Cargo.toml Your project’s package information, including its dependencies.
  • README.md
  • flake.nix
  • rust-toolchain.toml

Adding Antaeus

Good, now we have a generic Vexide Project. Next, we will be looking into how to modify it using Antaeus to make it work for our robot. Antaeus is available on crates.io, so you can easily add it using a single command:

cargo add antaeus

or you can add it manually to your Cargo.toml file:

[dependencies]
antaeus = "0.3.8"