2d character animations that interacts with the environment?

Hello, everyone, I am developing a 2d game and one of the defects of the character is that he's blind. So I want to animate the character differently where when he's beside a wall or any object (top-down 2d game), his arms reach out to the wall or object.

I want the animations to interact with the environment.

Rain World had some pretty fluid animations for the slug cat to maneuver within tight spaces. That is the best example I can give for what I am nearly looking for.

What would be the best approach to achieve this?