Robot state node fails on wireless connection

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System setup:

2 laptops connected via wireless router
Laptop #1: Windows PC running fanuc Roboguide software.  Generic M16iB/20 robot 
loaded.

Laptop #2: Ubuntu PC running ROS Fuerte (dev branch).

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Load the warehouse viewer: roslaunch M16iB20_arm_navigation 
planning_scene_warehouse_viewer_M16iB20_real.launch use_bswap:=false 
robot_ip:=<windows PC IP>
2.  Wait for the following error message (seems to only occur sometimes, 
perhaps dependent on network load).

<snip>

[ERROR] [1364269880.206831361, 1364269880.197273015]: Failed to init message, 
buffer size too small: 4
[ERROR] [1364269880.206939266, 1364269880.197273015]: Failed to receive 
incoming message
[ WARN] [1364269880.207787489, 1364269880.197273015]: Got joint state update 
but did not update some joints for more than 1 second.  Turn on DEBUG for more 
info
[ERROR] [1364269880.214934281, 1364269880.207870960]: Failed to init message, 
buffer size too small: 1
[ERROR] [1364269880.215031430, 1364269880.207870960]: Failed to receive 
incoming message
[ERROR] [1364269880.215178725, 1364269880.207870960]: Failed to initialize 
message
[ERROR] [1364269880.215235017, 1364269880.207870960]: Failed to receive 
incoming message

<snip>

[ERROR] [1364269457.829502995, 1364269457.827959060]: Failed to connect to 
server, rc: -1, errno: 106
[ERROR] [1364269457.829577446, 1364269457.827959060]: Failed to receive message 
length
[ERROR] [1364269457.829605592, 1364269457.827959060]: Failed to receive 
incoming message

<snip>

The error message seems to indicate that the socket receive failed (either due 
to a connection loss or no bytes, not sure which).  The recovery action is to 
try an reinitialize the connection.  The error code (106) returned by the 
connect method indicates that the previous connection is still valid ( see 
http://www-numi.fnal.gov/offline_software/srt_public_context/WebDocs/Errors/unix
_system_errors.html ).  This case is not handled, and the library simply tries 
to reconnect, endlessly.

This particular failure is odd because the state publisher simply reads bytes 
from the connected socket, seeming to indicate a problem with the receive logic.

Note: It's not clear if other robot vendors have this same issue.  The bug has 
only manifested itself on the Fanuc robot.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by [email protected] on 26 Mar 2013 at 4:00