What kind of switch is required to power a DC motor for robotics purposes? And why

not sure what you are doing..

for different reasons you may have different switches..

for a bumper when you hit an object you may want to reverse direction..

that would require a switch that is normally closed but when pressed will switch to other contacts and the other contacts would have the motor connected in reverse to change its direction..

so in that situation you would want a double pole double throw


the switch would be wired with the motor connected to the center contacts...

and the outer contacts would have the positive and negative of the required direction

.................motor
neg---o........o........o-----positive
.........................
pos---o.........o.........o-----negati…
..................motor


you can see that in one direction the motor would be connected one way producing forward motion and when the switch is pressed it would reverse direction..

for an arm maybe you want a limit switch so that the arm doesnt over extend

that would stop the motion in one direction when its limit is reached but if the motor is reversed it should still operate