©2026 Automation.com, a subsidiary of the International Society of Automation.
Otto Mation Comic Series
Meet Otto Mation!
Little Otto Mation was born with a rare gift called the C.A.P. (Certified Automation Professional), which is an objective assessment and confirmation of skills as an automation professional offered by the International Society of Automation (ISA). Those of us in the automation profession have studied and worked for years to earn the C.A.P. Follow the life of Otto through this unique comic series.
This month’s comic
Take a look at this month’s comic. If you think of a good caption, send it on over to us!

Meet Otto Mation!
Little Otto Mation was born with a rare gift called the C.A.P. (Certified Automation Professional), which is an objective assessment and confirmation of skills as an automation professional offered by the International Society of Automation (ISA). Those of us in the automation profession have studied and worked for years to earn the C.A.P. Follow the life of Otto through this unique comic series.
310 Results Found
-
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 11, 2015
Mr. Barnes presents Otto with a gift that he believes will help alleviate his work load. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 4, 2015
Otto walks in on Mr. Barnes who has a hired a psychic reader to predict the future. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - February 25, 2015
Otto asks his manager for a historian to help analyze plant data. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - February 4, 2015
The winning caption was submitted by Terence M. in Pennsylvania. "How else did you expect me to keep all of our projects on time and under budget?" -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - January 28, 2015
Otto stops an engineer from plugging a USB drive into a production PC and has an awkward moment. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - January 21, 2015
Otto suggests possible outcome when Mr. Barnes asks for change to old production line. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - December 17, 2014
The winning caption was submitted by Terence M. in Pennsylvania. "Santa, this is the Elfa version of the new automated assembly line." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - December 10, 2014
Mr. Barnes tells Otto that he can't use an innovative new controller because it's not on the approved vendor list. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - November 19, 2014
The winning caption was submitted by Nicholas R. in New York. "No Mr. Barnes, I clearly said we needed a "Turn-Key" solution for our egg inspection line." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - November 19, 2019
The winning caption for this comic caption contest was submitted by Gavin K, in Wisconsin. Congratulations, Gavin! -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - November 12, 2014
Otto questions Mr. Barnes about wanting to save money by using Cloud services for their manufacturing software systems. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - November 5, 2014
Otto suppresses Mr. Barnes' excitement over using IoT technology in their manufacturing facilities. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - October 29, 2014
The winning caption was submitted by Brad H. in South Carolina. "You think you are patched together? You should see our 20 year old DCS system." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - October 8, 2014
The sales engineer from key software supplier gets distracted by a request from Otto's company. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - September 24, 2014
The winning caption was submitted by Thomas O. in Texas. "See what I mean Mr. Barnes? I wasn't kidding about our equipment predating the stone age!" -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - September 10, 2014
Much to the chagrin of the CEO, Otto proposes more worthwhile and cost-effective control systems expenditures than past purchases. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - August 27, 2014
Otto bluffs Mr. Barnes into thinking he is leaving the company. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - August 20, 2014
Otto is the victim of his company's understaffed automation group. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - August 6, 2014
Mr. Barnes' exemplary management style and use of Pig Latin will help him lead the merge of the I.T. and Automation departments. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 30, 2014
Instead of getting a pay raise, Otto receives inexperienced help to lessen his workload. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 23, 2014
Otto laments over his salary, but delivers an unrecognized jab to his boss. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 16, 2014
Otto tries to convince his veteran colleague to embrace the latest technology in smartphones and tablets. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - June 18, 2014
Otto's company suffers the consequences because management didn't take cybersecurity seriously. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - June 11, 2014
Otto questions his colleague about the stacks and stacks of trade magazines on his desk. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - May 21, 2014
The winning captions were submitted by Russell Smith in Ontario, Canada and Stan Hoo in New Jersey. The top caption was submitted by Russell and the bottom caption was submitted by Stan. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 14, 2014
Otto questions his colleague about all the data from the manufacturing systems. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 7, 2014
Otto asks Mr. Barnes for money to redesign their best-selling machine. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 30, 2014
Otto walks in on Mr. Barnes giving a hug to one of his robots. This comic idea was submitted by Nancy Zarrow from Massachusetts. Thank you, Nancy! -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 23, 2014
Mr. Barnes inundates Otto with all of the latest industry buzz-words. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 16, 2014
How to use robots and stay compliant with the Equal Opportunity Employment Act. This comic idea was submitted by Nancy Zarrow from Massachusetts. Thank you, Nancy! -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - April 2, 2014
Congratulations to our winner! The winning comic caption was submitted by Douglas Zimmerman in Texas. Otto, is this an April Fool's joke, or is this machine still running on XP? -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 26, 2014
Otto warns his manager about those Windows XP computers that are running production. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 19, 2014
Otto is introduced to another set of clones, this time female, who were created to help achieve W.A.D. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 5, 2014
Mr. Barnes asks Otto about a new trend where robots are coming out of the closet. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - February 26, 2014
Otto's clones ask for more help to achieve automation domination in their countries. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - February 12, 2014
The winning caption was submitted by Rob Dickson of Ontario, Canada. Congratulations to our winner! -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - February 5, 2014
Otto introduces his clones to the concept of Worldwide Automation Domination (WAD). -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - January 29, 2014
Martians show up in Otto's office with a bunch of Otto clones and news about his C.A.P. gift. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - Janauary 22, 2014
Otto finds geneticist to clone engineers so he can achieve World Automation Domination (WAD). -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - December 18, 2013
Congratulations to our two winners - Todd Scott of Texas and Alvin Augustin of New Jersey! Enjoy your new Automation.com coffee mugs. The top caption was submitted by Todd and the bottom caption was submitted by Alvin. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - December 11, 2013
Otto questions his manager about the military uniform and crew cut. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - December 4, 2013
Otto explains to management why the future is so bright for automation engineers. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - November 20, 2013
Otto is too young to realize that he is using a inappropriate Seinfeld reference. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - November 13, 2013
Otto says, "The Automation Future's so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - November 6, 2013
Otto and Mr. Barnes lament the large number of industry acronyms and twitter hashtags. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - October 30, 2013
Otto draws comparison between project delay and delay in government responsibilities. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - October 16, 2013
Otto and his fellow engineers discuss politics around the water cooler. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - October 2, 2013
Congratulations to our winner! The winning comic caption was submitted by Nelson Gil in Texas. "He's old school...from back when a blinking red light was a high priority alarm." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - September 25, 2013
Otto shows IT a few "complicated" dashboards he developed with web-based software tools. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - September 18, 2013
Otto encourages the engineers to leverage IT technology for control applications. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - August 28, 2013
Congratulations to our winner! The winning comic caption was submitted by Sam R. in California. "It's Si-Borg!" Note: If you don't watch Duck Dynasty, you won't understand the caption. Background - "Si" (Silas Robertson) is the goof-ball, red-neck brother of the founder of the Duck Commander company and also the uncle of the three brothers who currently run the company. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - August 14, 2013
Otto introduces the team to a new high-speed, lightweight data historian. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - August 7, 2013
Otto pitches idea for new reality TV show to television executive. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 31, 2013
Otto's colleagues give him an idea on how to raise more awareness for the automation profession. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 24, 2013
Otto meets with suppliers to outline requested features for a new automation architecture. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - July 17, 2013
Otto's manager buys 'Big Servers' to handle the 'Big Data' problem at the plant. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic Caption Contest - June 19, 2013
Congratulations to our winner! The winning comic caption was submitted by Rich Merritt in Iowa. "Forget Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The new ANSI Collaborative Operation Standard R15.06-2012 says I can't hurt you. It doesn't stop me from fooling around, though." -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - June 12, 2013
Otto explains to IT why they can't be trusted to create usable information dashboards. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - June 5, 2013
Otto discovers that Manuel failed to hire a CSIA-certified systems integrator. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 29, 2013
Otto asks management to help present operators with more meaningful information from the automation systems. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 22, 2013
Otto explains the advantages of their new collaborative robot to Manuel. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 15, 2013
Otto explains the dangers of outsourcing engineering to his management team. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 8, 2013
There is something weird, and it don't look good. Who ya gonna call? -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - May 1, 2013
Otto explains to management why it's going to take some time to get to Industry 4.0. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 24, 2013
Otto discovers why the company hasn't been able to improve manufacturing processes in the last 20 years. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 17, 2013
Manuel uses the skills that Otto taught him to wreak havoc with the robots. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - April 3, 2013
Manuel agrees to be mentored by Otto to become an Automation Engineer. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 20, 2013
With Spring just around the corner (yeah, right), Otto wants to step back and re-evaluate their automation systems. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 27, 2013
Management asks Otto to mentor Manuel to be a productive automation engineer. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - March 13, 2013
Manuel tells Otto about the industrial accident that turned him against automation. -
Comic
Otto Mation Comic - February 20, 2013 - Caption Contest
Otto and Manuel duke it out in the ring. Congratulations to our winner! The winning comic caption was submitted by Michael Winters in Illinois.










































































