A multicapacitor sensor system facilitates the measurement of applied shear and moment forces. In one disclosed configuration, moments may be detectable in x, y and z directions, resulting in a full, 3-axis load cell with 6 degrees of freedom. The system may further include electrical circuitry to generate electrical drive pulses, sense amplify and buffer the voltages induced on the sense plates, and compute applied forces. An array of multicapacitor sensors that can be addressed individually without cross-talk and globally produce a map of forces and moments applied to the whole array. A MEMS implementation enables in vivo application.