Optimal Controlled Transports with Free End Times Subject to Import/Export Tariffs

Abstract: We analyze controlled mass transportation plans with free end-time that minimize the transport cost induced by the generating function of a Lagrangian within a bounded domain, in addition to costs incurred as export and import tariffs at entry and exit points on the boundary. We exhibit a dual variational principle `a la Kantorovich, that takes into consideration the additional tariffs. We then show that the primal optimal transport problem has an equivalent Eulerian formulation whose dual involves the resolution of a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman quasi-variational inequality with non-homogeneous boundary conditions. This allows us to prove existence and to describe the solutions for both the primal optimization problem and its Eulerian counterpart.