Circulating piston engine having a rotary valve assembly

An engine, comprising:

• a housing defining:
• an annular combustion channel disposed at an outer periphery of the housing, and
• an annular compression channel disposed at an outer periphery of the housing and disposed at an axial location relative to the annular combustion chamber;
• a set of combustion pistons disposed within the combustion channel;
• a set of compression pistons disposed within the compression channel;
• a set of rotary valves, each rotary valve of the set of rotary valves disposed within both the combustion channel and the compression channel;
• and
• a drive mechanism connected to the set of rotary valves and configured to position each rotary valve of the set of rotary valves:
• between a first position to align each rotary valve in the combustion channel to allow a combustion piston of the set of combustion pistons to travel within the combustion channel from a first location to a second location relative to each respective rotary valve of the set of rotary valves and a second position to define a combustion chamber relative to the combustion piston at the second location, and
• between a first position to align each rotary valve in the compression channel to allow a compression piston of the set of compression pistons to travel within the compression channel from a first location to a second location relative to each respective rotary valve of the set of rotary valves and a second position to define a compression chamber relative to the compression piston at the second location.