Relative Motion Consulting LLC supports multiple research and development initiatives led by Don Brutzman. Areas of expertise include X3D Graphics, Maritime Robotics, and Distributed Simulation.

Don Brutzman is a computer scientist and career submarine officer, now retired as an Assistant Professor from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey California. His development efforts include applying open standards for Web-based visualization using Extensible 3D (X3D) graphics, underwater robotics, implementing robotic data strategies, Network-Optional Warfare (NOW), Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems, and distributed simulation. His research interests include real-time interactive 3D computer graphics, underwater robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed networking for large-scale virtual environments.

Don served at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) as a faculty member in the Modeling Virtual Environments Simulation (MOVES) Institute, Undersea Warfare Academic Group, and Information Sciences Department. He graduated with a B.S.E.E. from the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) in 1978, and was awarded Ph.D. in Computer Science from NPS in 1994. He leads multiple Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics working-group activities for the non-profit Web3D Consortium. He is lead author of the book X3D Graphics for Web Authors, published April 2007 by Morgan Kaufmann. He is a retired naval submarine officer who qualified as nuclear engineer and served in a variety of engineering and operational tours. He is principal investigator for the Network-Optional Warfare (NOW) project exploring fleet stealth using efficient messaging, optical signaling, semantic coherence and Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems. Recent work includes Navy-wide distributed visualization using SPIDERS3D and X3D Virtual Sand Table (VST). He received the VADM Charles B. Martell – David Bushnell Award from National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Undersea Warfare Division in 2021.