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. As an advisor and author, 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 the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Undersea Warfare Division in 2021.