move_base dies when I publish range data to the range_sensor_layer

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I am using a turtlebot3_burger with kinetic and Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS with melodic on my laptop. I connected two sonic sensors (HC-SR04) to the raspberry and wrote a driver to publish the range data. I can map the space and then use the navigation stack to navigate; however, once I turn on these sonic sensors they kill the move_base. I have published them to an alternative topic to see if the hardware was the problem, and they don't interfere with move_base until I publish the range data to the topics I have listed for the plugin. I have tried to figure out why and I'm just not seeing my error. Can anyone help?

error message (although the log file doesn't actually exist when I try to find it):

[move_base-4] process has died [pid 17199, exit code 127, cmd /opt/ros/melodic/lib/move_base/move_base
[WARN] [1556908330.052460]: Failed to get param: timeout expired                                     │ cmd_vel:=/cmd_vel 
odom:=odom __name:=move_base __log:=/home/tyrel/.ros/log/b4efff2c-6dd1-11e9-8231-a0
[INFO] [1556908330.056455]: Setup TF on Odometry [odom]                                              │c5890be7a3/move_base-4.log].
[INFO] [1556908330.060261]: Setup TF on IMU [imu_link]                                               │log file: /home/tyrel/.ros/log/b4efff2c-6dd1-11e9-8231-a0c5890be7a3/move_base-4*.log

the log file doesn't exist:

:~/.ros/log/b4efff2c-6dd1-11e9-8231-a0c5890be7a3$ ls
amcl-3-stdout.log  map_server-2-stdout.log  master.log  robot_state_publisher-1-stdout.log  roslaunch-urithiru-17109.log  
roslaunch-urithiru-17159.log  rosout-1-stdout.log  rosout.log  rviz-5-stdout.log

costmap_common_params_burger.yaml

1 obstacle_range: 3.0
2 raytrace_range: 3.5
3
4 footprint: [[-0.105, -0.105], [-0.105, 0.105], [0.041, 0.105], [0.041, -0.105]]
5 #robot_radius: 0.105
6 
7 inflation_radius: 1.0
8 cost_scaling_factor: 3.0
9 
10 max_obstacle_height: 0.6
11 min_obstacle_height: 0.0
12 
13 obstacle_layer:
14    observation_sources: scan
15    scan:
16       data_type: LaserScan
17       topic: scan
18       marking: true
19       clearing: true
20       expected_update_rate: 0.0
21       observation_persistence: 0.0
22 
23 range_sensor_layer:
24    ns: /sensors/sonar_sensor
25    topics: ["/range_data/front_bumper","/range_data/back_bumper"]
26    no_readings_timeout: 0.0
27    clear_threshold: 1.0
28    mark_threshold: 8.0
29    clear_on_max_reading: true

global_costmap_params.yaml

1 global_costmap:
2   global_frame: map
3   robot_base_frame: base_footprint
4   map_type: costmap
5   static_map: true
6   rolling_window: false
7   resolution: 0.1
8   update_frequency: 2.0
9   publish_frequency: 2.0
10   transform_tolerance: 3.0
11 
12   plugins:
13     - {name: static_layer, type: 'costmap_2d::StaticLayer'}
14     - {name: inflation_layer, type: 'costmap_2d::InflationLayer'}

local_costmap_params.yaml

1 local_costmap:
2   global_frame: odom
3   robot_base_frame: base_footprint
4 
5   update_frequency: 2.0
6   publish_frequency: 2.0
7   transform_tolerance: 3.0
8 
9   static_map: false
10   rolling_window: true
11   width: 3
12   height: 3
13   resolution: 0.05
14 
15   plugins:
16   - {name: range_sensor_layer,   type: "range_sensor_layer::RangeSensorLayer"}
17   - {name: obstacle_layer,  type: "costmap_2d::ObstacleLayer"}
18   - {name: inflation_layer, type: 'costmap_2d::InflationLayer'}

range data publishing driver

sonic_pub = rospy.Publisher('/range_data/%s_bumper' % name, Range, queue_size=50)
data = Range()

data.radiation_type = 0 #ultrasound
data.field_of_view = 0.5 
data.min_range = 0.01
data.max_range = 1.0 

r = rospy.Rate(1)

try:
    while not rospy.is_shutdown():
        GPIO.output(t_pin, True)
        time.sleep(0.00001)
        GPIO.output(t_pin, False)
        while GPIO.input(e_pin ...