Hi
I think not so much the understanding of the actual sensor, not ignoring sensing capabilities,dimensions of equipment ect. for the application, but the actual mechanical design of the gripper and the object being gripped, it varies from different gripper types and i would say the sensor depends on the spesific application. Sensing plastic,metal ect. A good gripper design would cater and allow for any additional sensing equipment.
The mechanical designer of the gripper and the instrument designer have to work together in the design phase. In many cases if they dont ,few mechanical designers would cater for additional instrumentation for the automated system.