Implementing the EIT complete electrode model through Robin boundary conditions
Objective. Medical electrical impedance tomography systems prescribe electrode currents. Accurate voltages, even on passive electrodes, require the complete electrode model (CEM), the most accurate model known for skin electrodes. Its current constraints specify total electrode currents, whereas standard finite element boundary interfaces impose local conditions. We describe how to implement the CEM through Robin boundary conditions, which are available in standard FEM packages. Approach. Prescribed electrode potentials give Robin problems whose unit-potential responses define an electrode transadmittance matrix. We prove equivalence to the conventional augmented CEM and formalise the discrete energy, equivalence and reference arguments in Lean 4. Numerical comparisons use two-dimensional P1 finite elements in DOLFINx, FreeFEM, GetFEM, MFEM and NGSolve, with the same nodal reference potential as EIDORS. Main results. For identical assembled blocks, the two procedures have the same solution set whenever the Robin matrix is invertible. Across the five packages in dimensionless test cases, maximum absolute electrode-potential differences from EIDORS were below $5\times10^{-13}$ (2692 nodes), and errors against an exact rational-arithmetic reference were below $1.1\times10^{-13}$ (2535 nodes). Significance. Standard Robin solves and consistent electrode-current integration provide a portable route to the current-driven CEM, with current constraints enforced through a small electrode system.