It appears that the cob_sick_s300 node loads parameters from the global namespace, rather than a private namespace. This makes it tricky to use multiple drivers simultaneously. I have resorted to launching the nodes in a group namespace using the group tag, i.e.
<group ns="front">
<node pkg="cob_sick_s300" type="cob_sick_s300" name="front_laser" />
</group>
so that parameters like port can be specified in the front namespace
I have used versions of this driver in the past which did not require this namespace trickery, so I'm not sure why the change was made.
@fmessmer FYI