Welcoming Motiv’s New CTO: Edward Tunstel

Motiv is thrilled to announce our new Chief Technology Officer: Dr. Edward “Eddie” Tunstel.

If you’re in the world of space robotics, you likely already know who Eddie is.  If you’re not, let us explain why we’re so excited to have Eddie at Motiv as part of our leadership team.

The short version is that it’s hard to think of anyone with more theoretical and hands-on experience with space robotics.  Eddie quite literally wrote the book on space robotics.  Several of them actually.

After completing his undergrad and grad education at Howard University with BSME in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Engineering degrees, Eddie became Dr. Tunstel with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.  His dissertation?  Adaptive Hierarchy of Distributed Fuzzy Control: Application to Behavior Control of Rovers.

It’s no surprise then that Eddie spent 18 years at NASA JPL, where he worked as a Senior Robotics Engineer and Group Leader of JPL’s Advanced Robotic Controls Group.  At JPL, Eddie also took on the role of Flight Systems Engineer on the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers flight project, staying closely involved with the day-to-day operations of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers during their first 4 years on Mars.

After his time at JPL, Eddie moved to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), serving as Space Robotics and Autonomous Control Lead. He later served as Senior Roboticist in APL’s Research & Exploratory Development Department and Intelligent Systems Center.

After a decade at APL, Eddie joined United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) as an Associate Director of Robotics, before it was merged with Raytheon Technologies.

Beyond his impressive career, Eddie is the author of over 170 journal, book chapters, and conference publications, and is the editor or co-author of 5 books on robotics and autonomous control.

All of us on Motiv’s leadership team have worked with Eddie or been impressed with his work in the past.  We know that beyond his incredible technical knowledge, he’s a talented, inspiring leader – the type of person you want to work with on every project.

At Motiv, we’re busier than we’ve ever been, and Eddie’s leadership and expertise will be tremendously valuable as we continue to build robots and rovers, and develop new technologies alongside our government and commercial partners.

Welcome, Dr. Tunstel.  We’re thrilled to have you at Motiv.