ROS - RViz reports "No transform from [kinect] to [world]" when URDF appears correct

Question

I have specified a URDF relating the world with a table and a Microsoft Kinect mounted on a pole attached to this table.

The URDF parses successfully with check_urdf:

---------- Successfully Parsed XML ---------------
root Link: world has 1 child(ren)
    child(1):  table
        child(1):  kinect_mount
            child(1):  kinect

However, loading this URDF with robot_state_publisher and then checking RViz, the relationships do not appear to work correctly. Whatever link I set as the fixed frame shows with "Transform OK", but it cannot determine transforms for the other links:

The position of the links reported in RViz also does not match what is set in the URDF:

I am new to URDF but this example is largely copied from an existing tutorial online, where no such errors were described by the author. I have attached the full URDF and launch file respectively below:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot xmlns:xacro="http://www.ros.org/wiki/xacro" name="robot">

    <!-- World declaration -->
    <link name="world"></link>

    <!-- World to table -->
    <joint name="table_to_world" type="fixed">
        <origin xyz="1.5 1.0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
        <parent link="world"/>
        <child link="table"/>
    </joint>

    <link name="table">
        <visual>
            <origin xyz="0 0 0.05" rpy="0 0 0"/>
            <geometry>
                <box size="2.5 1.5 0.1"/>
            </geometry>
            <material name="green">
                <color rgba="0.2 1 0.2 1"/>
            </material>
        </visual>
        <!-- <inertial>
            <mass value="1"/>
            <inertia ixx="0.01" ixy="0" ixz="0" iyy="0.01" iyz="0" izz="0.01"/>
        </inertial> -->
    </link>

    <!-- Table to Kinect mount -->
    <joint name="table_to_kinect_mount" type="fixed">
        <origin xyz="1.5 1.0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
        <parent link="table"/>
        <child link="kinect_mount"/>
    </joint>

    <link name="kinect_mount">
        <visual>
            <origin xyz="-1.25 0 0.1" rpy="0 0 0"/>
            <geometry>
                <box size="0.1 0.1 0.1"/>
            </geometry>
            <material name="green">
                <color rgba="0.2 1 0.2 1"/>
            </material>
        </visual>
        <!-- <inertial>
            <mass value="1"/>
            <inertia ixx="0.01" ixy="0" ixz="0" iyy="0.01" iyz="0" izz="0.01"/>
        </inertial> -->
    </link>

    <!-- Kinect mount to Kinect -->
    <joint name="kinect_to_kinect_mount" type="fixed">
        <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
        <parent link="kinect_mount"/>
        <child link="kinect"/>
    </joint>

    <link name="kinect">
        <visual>
            <geometry>
                <sphere radius="0.05"/>
            </geometry>
        </visual>
    </link> 

</robot>

launch (please note this runs inside an ephemeral container where the xacro file is converted to pure URDF as part of the container build stage):

<launch>
    <!-- Load the urdf into the parameter server -->
    <param name="robot_description" textfile="/app/urdf/robot.urdf"/>

    <node pkg="robot_state_publisher" type="robot_state_publisher" name="robot_state_publisher">
    </node>
</launch>

Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Answer 1

Solved; it was an issue with the container networking configuration. I am testing with RViz outside of the container and only port 11311 was forwarded. rosnode ping robot_state_publisher failed, so I switched it to host networking for testing, and all the transforms work.