Automated beverage dispensing machines

A beverage dispensing machine comprising:

• a conveyor that carries a plurality of cup holders around a track having a front side oriented towards a front of the beverage dispensing machine and a back side oriented towards a back of the beverage machine, wherein the front side provides a plurality of beverage staging positions that are accessible by an operator to manually remove cups from the plurality of cup holders;
• a cup tower configured to hold a plurality of stacks of cups and to place cups from the plurality of stacks of cups into the plurality of cup holders;
• a dispensing nozzle configured to dispense a beverage into the cups in the plurality of cup holders;
• a plurality of dispensing valves configured to control flow of the beverage to the dispensing nozzle;
• a computer controller configured to control movement of the conveyor, control movement of a cup grabber into and between the lowered position and raised position, and control the plurality of dispensing valves to dispense the beverage via the dispensing nozzle;
• and
• an ultrasonic sensor that senses whether a cup is present in a respective cup holder of the plurality of cup holders when the respective cup holder is adjacent the ultrasonic sensor, and wherein the computer controller is configured to control the conveyor based in part upon an output from the ultrasonic sensor, wherein the ultrasonic sensor senses whether a cup is present in the respective cup holder through a window in a sidewall of the cup holder.