I work with a previous welder. In high school, I took a welding course. What guy doesn't like cutting steel with fire and electricity?! Welding... Unfortunately, I believe that is going to fall into the "will be replaced by a robot" one day soon category. Sure, there will still be human welders, but they will be vastly outnumbered by machines that do it instead.

Have you considered doing electronics? The end goal being to be the robot repairer as well as the robot controller. My father is a mechanic by trade, but he spent 31 years doing machinist stuff. Almost everything he did though was interacting with a computer, and then a machine did the work. He was a "machine operator" I would say. Having his background skills though helped him a ton, and he even designed and built some of the tools they use still today.

My oldest son is another example. He wants to do electrical engineering, but I keep telling him to learn electronics as well. The two work well together. Have you ever played a video game where you need foundational skills before you can move on to more complex ones? We are the same way IRL of course. I'm working on my physical security skills and read every residential security book I can get my hands on.

Those skills benefit from my past experiences though. You're in the same situation. Build on your past skills into things that make the most sense and that you're also passionate about! :)

I'm a residential security expert. For that reason I'm pretty biased against all types of home automation, monitoring, and other devices like the robots and "smart" appliances. They spy. Many of them can be hacked into too. I don't recommend them to people, and most of them are expensive doodads anyway. Save your money for vacations instead. haha My wife for example insists on using a vacuum to clean the hardwood floors. Uhm, dear... There's this thing called a broom, and it doesn't cost electricity. /sigh