Thanks, that's great info. Am I mistaken in remembering that the video shows the thing standing? Is it actually not capable of this? Or is there some very short time-limit?
I am sure it is. However, the design uses very expensive custom boards to save a lot of weight. The build I was involved with used Odrives and that was enough to have issues. Pre-stretching the belts is also important.
If I had to guess I would suggest that, while 3D printing is a great enabling technology one of the issues it suffers from is that of tolerances. I'll preface this by saying I did not take any measurements at all on the parts as printed. If I did, I would not be surprised to discover issues that, in the aggregate, could lead to performance issues.
The one I was involved with could never jump like that. My guess is that umbilical, at a minimum, carries power. Based on what I know, I cannot imagine the robot doing what is shown on these videos while loaded with the two battery packs that are part of the design.
Please keep in mind that this is a single data point. I am sure there have been many successful builds. It's a nice design. I was not intimately involved in the original build of the robot we dealt with. I was involved in a complete tear-down and reconfiguration to make it work. As I mentioned, this led to the design of a lightweight quadruped that is fully CNC machined and uses more powerful and capable customized drone motors.
I'd be curious to learn more about the motor selection for the complete tear down and rebuild. One of the biggest buys of the Solo (in the article) design is the 'high bandwidth' current/torque control, and the price/performance seemed (at the time) to be pretty great.
If I had to guess I would suggest that, while 3D printing is a great enabling technology one of the issues it suffers from is that of tolerances. I'll preface this by saying I did not take any measurements at all on the parts as printed. If I did, I would not be surprised to discover issues that, in the aggregate, could lead to performance issues.