Depending on what you want to do, you'll have different ways of going about these lifting methods; One is the forklift type of lifter. This is usually done with chain, either in continuous paths, or all individual per section. Then there's ideas such as elevator designs, which use scissor-type lifting.. For this you could either use pneumatics, or linear actuators... or possibly have a high-torque motor at the center axis of the sicssors themselves...
just throughing out some ideas
