Game Theory and Human/Robot Goals

Good way to systematically think about the problem, but we never found it to be a way to solve the problem.  I like the approach outlined here:

How Game Theory Can Bring Humans, Robots Closer Together 
University of Sussex (U.K.)
By Neil Vowles

Researchers at the University of Sussex and Imperial College London in the U.K., and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, have used game theory to enable robots to assist humans in a safe and versatile manner. The researchers used adaptive control and Nash equilibrium game theory to program a robot that can understand its human user's behavior in order to better anticipate their movements and respond to them. The researchers overcame the robot’s inability to understand a human's intentions by enabling the robot to identify its human user while safely and efficiently interacting with their motion. The resulting system allows a robot to continuously learn the human user's control and adapt its own control correspondingly. Imperial College London’s Etienne Burdet said that to apply game theory to human-robot interaction, “it was necessary to understand how the robot can identify the human user’s control goals simultaneously to smoothly interacting with them."  ... "