  An analogy is explored between a setup of three atomic traps coupled via
tunneling and an internal atomic three-level system interacting with two laser
fields. Within this scenario we describe a STIRAP like process which allows to
move an atom between the ground states of two trapping potentials and analyze
its robustness. This analogy is extended to other robust and coherent transport
schemes and to systems of more than a single atom. Finally it is applied to
manipulate external degrees of freedom of atomic wave packets propagating in
waveguides.
