Researchers developed a novel trajectory generation method for smart cities
The approach works without requiring real mobility data from target locations
It uses bus route information as a conditioning factor
This breakthrough enables smart city development in data-scarce environments
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Researchers from academic institutions have introduced a novel approach called 'bus-conditioned zero-shot trajectory generation' in a paper published on arXiv in February 2026, aiming to solve the persistent challenge of obtaining mobility trajectory data for smart city applications when such data is not readily available. The research addresses a significant limitation in current smart city development, where mobility trajectory data serves as essential support for various applications but is often difficult to obtain due to privacy concerns, technical limitations, or simply lack of collection infrastructure. Most existing trajectory generation methods operate under the assumption that at least some real mobility data from the target city is available, which severely restricts their usefulness in data-inaccessible scenarios or when working with new urban environments. By proposing this new problem setting and methodology, the researchers aim to enable trajectory generation without requiring any prior real data from the target location, potentially accelerating smart city planning and development in regions where mobility data collection is challenging or impossible.
Urban planning (also called city planning or town planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution netwo...
City using integrated information and communication technology
A smart city is an urban model that leverages technology, human capital, and governance to improve sustainability, efficiency, and social inclusion, which are considered goals for cities of the future. Smart cities use digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from c...
arXiv:2602.13071v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: Mobility trajectory data provide essential support for smart city applications. However, such data are often difficult to obtain. Meanwhile, most existing trajectory generation methods implicitly assume that at least a subset of real mobility data from target city is available, which limits their applicability in data-inaccessible scenarios. In this work, we propose a new problem setting, called bus-conditioned zero-shot trajectory generation, w
