The 2-degree-of-freedom (2DoF) rotary–linear (RL) motors are capable of implementing pure rotary motion, pure linear motion, or helical motion along the same axis, which have definite advantages of integrated structures, high material utilization, and fast response. Therefore, such motors have an extensive application prosperity ranging from robots, electric vessels, electric and hybrid vehicles, screwing machines, drilling machines, and intelligent machining systems. In this paper, an overview of 2DoF RL motors is presented, which can be divided into the motors with crossed RL magnetic field and those with independent RL magnetic fields. The development of various topologies and the corresponding coupling effect, optimization designs, and decoupling control algorithms are discussed and reviewed.