When you reach the room with the pillars, Aloy will mention that shooting the gears may lock them into place to create a path up. Look for the gold, diamond floor switch on the ground in front of the pillars.

Stand on that, and the pillars will rise. A node on the rotating portions will then light up when it’s in the proper position. Shoot it with an arrow to lock it into place; when done properly, the pillar will make a noise and lower slightly. Repeat that for all three pillars, and climb up to the next section. 

At the top of the next area, go left to find another diamond floor switch on the ground at the end of the path. There will be a diamond window in the wall to the right. Smash through that to find a large crate.

Push the crate through the force field on the right. If it won’t go all of the way through, go on the other side of the shield and use your Pullcaster. Push the box onto the floor switch.

The two pillars on front of the floor switch will rise, and you’ll be able to shoot them the same way as the ones before, locking them into place to create a path to the other side. Once across, there’s another floor switch and a third set of pillars. Simply stand on the switch, and shoot. The only difference here is that the sections rotate faster than the other two sets.

And that’s how you activate the rotating pillars in Repair Base: Tau during The Dying Lands quest. We’ve got more Horizon Forbidden West tips and guides right over here.