[Closed] Surface interaction/physics

I am trying to develop a script that can check when object1 intersects object2 and moves object1 to the surface of object2 through an animation. The purpose of this is to be a part of a much bigger script that automatically animates the movement of legs based on the position of a helper object that controls the position of the rig. I want the feet to be able to follow the surface without going through it, either in realtime or overwriting the preanimated keyframes.

What I needed to know was if there is a certain formula used to prevent object intersection, is there a name for this method or is there anything specific I could research in order to understand this better?

Thanks for the help.