A rotary positioning system configured to provide absolute referencing is provided. The rotary positioning system includes an encoder mounted on a motor shaft of a motor and configured to generate an index pulse corresponding to a complete rotation of the motor shaft. The rotary positioning system also includes a speed reducer coupled to the motor shaft and configured to reduce a rotary motion of the motor by a pre-defined ratio and an output drive shaft coupled to the speed reducer and configured to transfer the reduced rotary motion to a load. The rotary positioning system further includes a sensor mounted on the output drive shaft of the speed reducer and configured to determine an absolute orientation of the output drive shaft and a controller coupled to the sensor and configured to generate a correlation function of the absolute orientation and the index pulse count.

A rotary positioning system configured to provide absolute referencing is provided. The rotary positioning system includes an encoder mounted on a motor shaft of a motor and configured to generate an index pulse corresponding to a complete rotation of the motor shaft. The rotary positioning system also includes a speed reducer coupled to the motor shaft and configured to reduce a rotary motion of the motor by a pre-defined ratio and an output drive shaft coupled to the speed reducer and configured to transfer the reduced rotary motion to a load. The rotary positioning system further includes a sensor mounted on the output drive shaft of the speed reducer and configured to determine an absolute orientation of the output drive shaft and a controller coupled to the sensor and configured to generate a correlation function of the absolute orientation and the index pulse count.

A torque feedback mechanism for a trigger or lever using a rotary reluctance engine is disclosed. In some examples, the rotary reluctance engine includes two fixed asymmetric core/coil assemblies located on one or both sides of a permanent magnet. In some examples, the core/coil assemblies are fixed in place, and the permanent magnet is coupled to the trigger or lever such that the magnet rotates with respect to the core/coil assemblies as the trigger or lever is squeezed. When the coils of the engine are programmably energized, the cores are magnetized at different angular rotations of the trigger or lever, creating a torque feedback profile that can be quickly modified to provide more or less torque at different angular displacements during the squeezing of the trigger or lever to emulate different triggers or levers.