How can I control a single pin with electromagnetics?

[ISU20CpreE]

Hello i am an Electrical Engineering undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
My purpose here in this thread is to ask anybody interested in my idea, I am asking an educated contribution on how to control a single pin with electromagnetic waves.

Lets go by parts, the model i am trying to research is a 1x1 meter square that has 40,000 pins set every 0.5cm to each other. This makes the surface area of the square an array of symmetrical positioned pins. The part i am researching is how to control 1 pin with electromagnetics. If this is an easy way of doing it suggestions needed are what, how can I start controling that 1 pin in order to move upward or downward. Is electromagnetics a good start or perhaps I should move on to some other control method?

Thank you for your interest in this topic dear reader I wish I can read some really valuable questions in the morning and hopefully read some new ideas to do this.

Once I have controlled one pin I can control 2 and so on, the idea is simple but challenging.

Once again thank you for your time dear reader.

PS: I am going to rest ill check post first hour in the morning.

 

[mgb_phys]

You can simply wrap a coil around each pin and power each coil individually to move each pin independantly - but I'm guessing that isn't what you were planing!

If you are planning some sort of remote electromagnetic field focussed on each pin in turn and just moving a single pin without disturbing it's neighbours - tricky.

 

[ISU20CpreE]

You can simply wrap a coil around each pin and power each coil individually to move each pin independantly - but I'm guessing that isn't what you were planing!

If you are planning some sort of remote electromagnetic field focussed on each pin in turn and just moving a single pin without disturbing it's neighbors - tricky.

Yes indeed that's exactly what I mean how to insulate them to avoid stimulation from their neighbors. The part I was thinking is powering each pin with water or air controlled by a valve, but please if you have any idea to give me a start on this project will be really satisfying.

 

[dlgoff]

Well, if you had a good CO2 laser, you could design a optical position controller and blast the pin.