The current document discusses electromechanical sequence detectors that transduce changes in the shape of a shape-change sensor component into an electrical signal from which one or more derived values are generated. In a disclosed implementation, the sequence-detection system comprises a mechanical-change sensor that changes shape when specifically interacting with entities within a target, a shape-to-signal-transduction component that transduces changes in the shape of the mechanical-change sensor into an electrical signal, an analysis subsystem that determines the types of entities within the target using the electrical signal, and a control subsystem that continuously monitors operational characteristics of the sequence-detection system and adjusts sequence-detection system operational parameters.