China: Hong Kong’s Development Bureau will test whether heavy-duty drones, weighing nearly 150kg each, can carry essential items across up to six sites over the next 12 months, according to the South China Morning Post. The bureau said it was partnering with two companies to test whether the devices could carry heavy materials such as cement for construction work. Other potential applications could reduce safety risks and save maintenance costs for public projects and facilities.
“We want to use this Sandbox X project to trial the emerging technology and see how this new, complex, unconventional concept and technology can be safely iterated, validated, applied and extended under real-world conditions in our actual sites and facilities, and then to identify challenges we will face and adjust whatever is necessary in the applications accordingly. This is the first purpose,” a bureau spokesperson said. “This will not only help lower operational safety risks and simplify daily procedures, but also effectively enhance emergency response capabilities.”
The trial run is part of a ‘regulatory sandbox’ launched in November 2025. The spokesperson added that the drones could carry items weighing up to 80kg. Using a drone to bypass obstacles on the ground and traffic bottlenecks could significantly speed up operations to save time and operating costs, while eliminating the need for manual transport, they said. It could replace multiple truck trips from one end of the site to the other, with quick, direct point-to-point aerial deliveries, posing an advantage at large, muddy or multi-level sites.
