I don't know that it would right on the cutting head, right there at the work...But of course it may...It certainly would have sensors measuring the load on the motor...Never seen one up close but no doubt a very complex piece of machinery...
It's probably in pretty deep and they don't want to or can't back it up very easily to have a look see...
I work on machinery (recently retired) and am always excited to see how machinery works...
Me too, in general. I've always taken stuff apart to understand it (starting as a kid), had jobs to do same and still do my own failure analysis on stuff around the compound that breaks.
Sometimes just a laying on of the hands fixes things. ;-)
Thirty-plus years ago a guy developed an electrical sensor that could measure the differences in soil types and used parts on the TBM bit. Basically a fancy resistance meter. It could tell if they were in soft or hard soils, and even where a boulder’s general location was on the bit. It would also be a very good method to see if they were grinding against metal I would imagine.
I would be surprised if they didn’t have something like that. But I haven’t heard anything like that in the news.