US is the first to invent jurisdiction, that means if you started working on your system before they filed for this patent, you are the first inventor, and at the least, you have the right to continue with your business.
If you are not the first, you should get someone familar with IP (intellectual property), ideally a lawyer, to look at that patent for you. Read their claims (not their patent body) carefully to see if it covers what and how you want to do it. Sometimes the patent may read a certain way - because that's what a good lawyer does: draft very broad description for the patent, but their ability to enforce may be limited to a certain way of doing things, or certain results, or certain combination of properties and functions of the sensor system.
Also look into the patent history to see if the patent family is alive. If they have filed a continuation applicaiton, for example, since this issued patent, then the family is alive, which means they will have the scope of adding claims, based on their patent body, if they notice that you are working on their space.
If everything reads right on to what you want to do, check the prosecution history of the patent - the back and forth argument and evidence that this large corporation did with the patent office in order to get this patent allow to see if there are holes in their argument. This will help you figure out where you fit in the deal.
In short, get someone who is familiar with IP to check this for you. Until someone reads that patent and do due diligence on it, will be hard for anyone to say.
That's just the IP part. There is the business decision which believe it or not is separate. If all fails on the IP side, maybe approach this company for a licensing opportunity.
Great comments, thanks. You and others have pointed out the need for an expert in IP, which I agree with. I will try my university and then maybe consider other advisors.
