With Italtel and Cisco,
E80 Group secures its AGVs

CHALLENGE

In the increasingly competitive and dynamic landscape of modern logistics, operational efficiency and technological innovation are crucial factors for business success. Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) play a pivotal role in achieving these objectives by streamlining material handling processes, reducing labor costs, and enhancing overall productivity within warehouses and distribution centers. Very important in this technology-driven environment is robust cybersecurity, which ensures the protection of sensitive data and prevents disruptions caused by cyber threats, thereby safeguarding the seamless operation of advanced logistical systems.

E80 Group, an Italian multinational, based in Viano, Italy, builds its autonomous and laser guided vehicles (AGVs and LGVs) that can move around a facility, transport materials, and interact with other machines and systems in warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants. E80 Group has equipped more than 450 integrated factories in various parts of the world installing over 2,800 robotic systems, more than 9,000 AGVs and LGVs, and several high-density automatic warehouses. Every day, E80 solutions handle more than 1 billion€ of products worldwide.

Modern AGVs utilize sophisticated technologies like laser scanners, vision cameras, and LiDAR that allows for dynamic path planning, obstacle detection, and safe operation in complex environments. Modern AGVs are also networked – communicating with other AGVs, robots, and central control systems, which enables better coordination and fleet management. They are a key enabler of smart manufacturing, and a component of Industry 4.0, making possible more automated, data-driven, and optimized manufacturing processes, by delivering the right thing to the right place at the right time.

But extensive connectivity can also increase the threat of cyberattacks.

“The increased reliance on technology and connectivity in modern AGVs introduces new cybersecurity challenges that manufacturers and distributors need to address,” says Fabio Oleari, Manager of OT cybersecurity at E80 Group, “In addition to data theft, malware attacks, etc., malicious actors could potentially hack into the AGV’s control system, hijack its movement, or disrupt its operations.”

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SOLUTION

E80 Group is committed to making their AGVs as secure as possible. For that purpose, they rely on Cisco’s unified industrial security and networking architecture. This architecture embeds security within industrial networking equipment such as Catalyst Industrial Ethernet Switches and Catalyst Industrial Routers, and serves to eliminate point security products, simplify the architecture, and make deployments easier to scale.

Thanks to Italtel’s system integration and Cisco’s converged OT cybersecurity and networking architecture, E80 Group can accomplish seamless and secure integration of their industrial solutions.

E80 Group delivers hundreds of AGVs to each customer. Configuring and monitoring switches and Cyber Vision on these many vehicles manually is not only time consuming but can also lead to inaccuracies. To automate such tasks and reduce time to deploy, E80 Group teamed up with Italtel, that has a storied past and has long been a pioneer in telecommunications, software defined networking, 5G, and industrial IoT, with specialization in areas of smart manufacturing and OT cybersecurity.

“We designed a system for E80 Group that allows them to provision and configure Catalyst IE3400 switches and Cyber Vision in hundreds of AGVs at their customer locations”, said Simone Ogadri, Cyber Security Engineering Manager at Italtel. This system allows E80 Group to provide managed services to ensure security of their AGVs deployed in customer sites.

“We used the APIs available in Catalyst IE3400’s IOS XE operating system, Cyber Vision, and ISE to build this dashboard,” explained Ogadri, “By using open-source tools for IT automation such as Ansible, we are able to provision switches, configure Cyber Vision, and update software automatically.”

Using these tools, E80 Group can remotely activate their AGVs at customer sites.

“Once provisioned, we use Cyber Vision and ISE to group connected assets in each AGV, create segmentation policies, and instruct the Catalyst IE3400 to enforce these policies, with point-and-click simplicity”, explained Oleari. Using Cyber Vision, they can now continuously monitor each AGV.

“I congratulate E80 group and Italtel for delivering safe and secure mobility solutions for critical supply chain functions using Cisco industrial security and networking technologies,” said Samuel Pasquier, Vice President, Cisco Industrial IoT. “Cisco presents a unique value proposition to partners like Italtel and machine builders like E80 Group who must protect their solutions and customers’ operations while also providing value-added services to deploy, manage, and monitor the security of their systems remotely.”

CONCLUSION

As the momentum towards the evolution to Industry 4.0 accelerates, analyst data shows a steady growth in adoption of AGVs, AMRs, mobile handheld tooling, and more.. Left unaddressed, the resulting increase in the threat surface can have several negative consequences that could impact productivity, lead to financial losses, and even threaten worker safety. By taking proactive measures to secure mobile devices, organizations can mitigate these risks and ensure safe, efficient, and reliable operations.

With its extensive experience in system integration, Italtel selects the best-of-breed technologies to deliver optimal solutions for its customers. For the E80 Group, Italtel has chosen Cisco, whose comprehensive security embedded in networking equipment simplifies the process for machine builders to connect, protect, and deploy their industrial solutions, while also offering managed services to their clients.

Learn more about our cyber security solutions on our website.

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