# Be More Real: Travel Diary Generation Using LLM Agents and Individual Profiles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.18932 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.18932/

## Key facts

- Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 14 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Jul 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07258/) (2021)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Social GAN: Socially Acceptable Trajectories with Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10892/) (2018)
- [Social Simulacra: Creating Populated Prototypes for Social Computing Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.04024/) (2022)
- [Agent Hospital: A Simulacrum of Hospital with Evolvable Medical Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02957/) (2024)
- [EconAgent: Large Language Model-Empowered Agents for Simulating Macroeconomic Activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10436/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models as Urban Residents: An LLM Agent Framework for Personal Mobility Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14744/) (2024)
- [MetaAgents: Large Language Model Based Agents for Decision-Making on Teaming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06500/) (2023)
- [DiffTraj: Generating GPS Trajectory with Diffusion Probabilistic Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11582/) (2023)
- [LSTM-TrajGAN: A Deep Learning Approach to Trajectory Privacy Protection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10521/) (2020)
- [Continuous Trajectory Generation Based on Two-Stage GAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07103/) (2023)
- [Data-driven generation of spatio-temporal routines in human mobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.05952/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Toward LLM-Agent-Based Modeling of Transportation Systems: A Conceptual Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06681/) (2024)
- [GATSim: Urban Mobility Simulation with Generative Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23306/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models and Their Applications in Roadway Safety and Mobility Enhancement: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06301/) (2025)
- [Aligning LLM with human travel choices: a persona-based embedding learning approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19003/) (2025)
- [Multi-level Value Alignment in Agentic AI Systems: Survey and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09656/) (2025)
- [CAMS: A CityGPT-Powered Agentic Framework for Urban Human Mobility Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13599/) (2025)
- [Large Language Model Powered Intelligent Urban Agents: Concepts, Capabilities, and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.00914/) (2025)
- [Persona-aware and Explainable Bikeability Assessment: A Vision-Language Model Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03534/) (2026)
- [Urban Computing in the Era of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02009/) (2025)
- [Popular LLMs Amplify Race and Gender Disparities in Human Mobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14469/) (2024)
- [MoveGPT: Scaling Mobility Foundation Models with Spatially-Aware Mixture of Experts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18670/) (2025)
- [MobiVerse: Scaling Urban Mobility Simulation with Hybrid Lightweight Domain-Specific Generator and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21784/) (2025)
- [Towards Locally Deployable Fine-Tuned Causal Large Language Models for Mode Choice Behaviour](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21432/) (2025)
- [From Narrative to Action: A Hierarchical LLM-Agent Framework for Human Mobility Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24802/) (2025)
- [Think2Go: Generative Next POI Recommendation with LLM Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28997/) (2026)
- [Large language model as user daily behavior data generator: balancing population diversity and individual personality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17615/) (2025)
- [Generating Individual Travel Diaries Using Large Language Models Informed by Census and Land-Use Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09710/) (2025)
- [PEMAND: Persona-Enriched Multi-Agent Negotiation for Household Decision-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.10475/) (2026)
- [GenWorld: Empirically Grounded Urban Simulation Infrastructure for Scalable LLM-Agent Studies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27650/) (2026)
- [Do LLMs Know Your Neighborhood? Auditing LLM Priors for Neighborhood-Level Mobility Prediction and Structural Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00345/) (2026)
- [Enhancing Human Mobility Prediction with Spatially Aware LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.14227/) (2026)
- [Relative Transitions, Not Absolute Destinations: A Transfer-and-Ground Framework for Target-Trajectory-Free Human Mobility Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.02033/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Human mobility is inextricably linked to social issues such as traffic congestion, energy consumption, and public health; however, privacy concerns restrict access to mobility data. Recently, research have utilized Large Language Models (LLMs) for human mobility generation, in which the challenge is how LLMs can understand individuals' mobility behavioral differences to generate realistic trajectories conforming to real world contexts. This study handles this problem by presenting an LLM agent-based framework (MobAgent) composing two phases: understanding-based mobility pattern extraction and reasoning-based trajectory generation, which enables generate more real travel diaries at urban scale, considering different individual profiles. MobAgent extracts reasons behind specific mobility trendiness and attribute influences to provide reliable patterns; infers the relationships between contextual factors and underlying motivations of mobility; and based on the patterns and the recursive reasoning process, MobAgent finally generates more authentic and personalized mobilities that reflect both individual differences and real-world constraints. We validate our framework with 0.2 million travel survey data, demonstrating its effectiveness in producing personalized and accurate travel diaries. This study highlights the capacity of LLMs to provide detailed and sophisticated understanding of human mobility through the real-world mobility data.