12/13/2025
Did you know a Black teenager in the 1960s built his own 7-foot robot… right in his family’s living room?
His name was James Chisholm from Portsmouth, Virginia.
Long before STEM programs, robotics clubs, YouTube tutorials, or engineering kits, James taught himself how machines worked by studying manuals and breaking down old parts.
At just 12 years old, he built his first robot from scraps.
By high school, he created OTTO-TRON — a 200-pound robot made from tin, galvanized metal, bulbs for eyes, and mechanical parts he salvaged on his own.
Otto-Tron wasn’t a toy.
It could shake hands, talk, do simple math, and respond to commands. And he did all of this with no formal training, no special tools, and no blueprint except his imagination.
His creation won top science awards, earned him a college scholarship to Norfolk State, and impressed the university president so much that he offered James a job in the engineering department on the spot.
His mother said the robot kept him focused and out of trouble.
James said it opened the door to the future.
A teenager.
A homemade robot.
In the early 1960s.
Built from whatever he could find.
