  The ability to dictate colloid motion is an important challenge in fields
ranging from materials science to living systems. Here, by embedding energy
landscapes in confined nematic liquid crystals, we design a versatile platform
to define colloidal migration. This is achieved by placing a wavy wall, with
alternating hills and wells, in nematic liquid crystals, to impose a smooth
elastic energy field with alternating splay and bend distortions. This domain
generates (meta) stable loci that act as attractors and unstable loci that
repel colloids over distances large compared to the colloid radius. Energy
gradients in the vicinity of these loci are exploited to dictate colloid
trajectories. We demonstrate several aspects of this control, by studying
transitions between defect configurations, propelling particles along well
defined paths and exploiting multistable systems to send particles to
particular sites within the domain. Such tailored landscapes have promise in
reconfigurable systems and in microrobotics applications
