Moving animated objects with motioncontrollers

I’m trying to get objects that are animated to follow a path to react to touches or hits from my motioncontrollers (Vive).
The idea i’m after is kind of like the jellyfish in the ‘TheBlu’ Demo, where you can push or punch away jellyfish, after which they resume their path.
Does anybody have an idea on how to approach this problem?

Thanks!