  By applying invariant-based inverse engineering in the small-oscillations
regime, we design the time dependence of the control parameters of an overhead
crane (trolley displacement and rope length), to transport a load between two
positions at different heights with minimal final energy excitation for a
microcanonical ensemble of initial conditions. The analogies between ion
transport in multisegmented traps or neutral atom transport in moving optical
lattices and load manipulation by cranes opens a route for a useful transfer of
techniques among very different fields.
