A cylinder stroke determination system and a method of determining a stroke of a cylinder are provided. The system includes a cylinder having a rod and a barrel, a sensing cylinder configured to operate with the cylinder, and a processor. The sensing cylinder includes a sensing cylinder base coupled to the barrel of the cylinder, a sensing cylinder rod coupled to the connecting portion of the rod of the cylinder, a photon emitter coupled to the sensing cylinder base and configured to emit a photon toward a photon target disposed at the sensing cylinder rod, and a photon receiver coupled to the sensing cylinder base and configured to receive the photon reflected from the photon target. The processor is configured to determine a stroke of the cylinder based on a time of flight of the photon from the photon emitter to the photon receiver.