A Systematic Review and Taxonomy of Reinforcement Learning-Model Predictive Control Integration for Linear Systems

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews the integration of Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control for linear systems, organizing existing research into a taxonomy and identifying key trends, challenges, and design patterns.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive taxonomy and synthesis of RL-MPC integration strategies specifically for linear and linearized systems, addressing literature fragmentation.

Findings

Identifies common RL roles and algorithms in RL-MPC for linear systems.

Highlights challenges like computational burden and robustness.

Reveals prevalent design patterns and associations in the literature.

Abstract

The integration of Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for constrained decision-making and adaptive control. MPC offers structured optimization, explicit constraint handling, and established stability tools, whereas RL provides data-driven adaptation and performance improvement in the presence of uncertainty and model mismatch. Despite the rapid growth of research on RL--MPC integration, the literature remains fragmented, particularly for control architectures built on linear or linearized predictive models. This paper presents a comprehensive Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of RL--MPC integrations for linear and linearized systems, covering peer-reviewed and formally indexed studies published until 2025. The reviewed studies are organized through a multi-dimensional taxonomy covering RL functional roles, RL algorithm classes, MPC formulations, cost-function structures, and application domains. In addition, a cross-dimensional synthesis is conducted to identify recurring design patterns and reported associations among these dimensions within the reviewed corpus. The review highlights methodological trends, commonly adopted integration strategies, and recurring practical challenges, including computational burden, sample efficiency, robustness, and closed-loop guarantees. The resulting synthesis provides a structured reference for researchers and practitioners seeking to design or analyze RL--MPC architectures based on linear or linearized predictive control formulations.