Internal models for nonlinear output agreement and optimal flow control

Abstract: This paper studies the problem of output agreement in networks of nonlinear dynamical systems under time-varying disturbances. Necessary and sufficient conditions for output agreement are derived for the class of incrementally passive systems. Following this, it is shown that the optimal distribution problem in dynamic inventory systems with time-varying supply and demand can be cast as a special version of the output agreement problem. We show in particular that the time-varying optimal distribution problem can be solved by applying an internal model controller to the dual variables of a certain convex network optimization problem.