To solve the complicated parameter tunning problem of bridge crane sliding mode controller, a sliding mode controller based on IGWO (Improved Grey Wolf Algorithm) was designed. Different from the existing methods, the proposed method can obtain good control effect without going through the complicated manual adjustment process. Specifically, a new switching function is designed to reduce chattering. In addition, the population diversity of traditional gray Wolf algorithms is poor. To enhance its search ability, an IGWO algorithm based on neighborhood learning is proposed and the controller parameters are set with it. The simulation consequences show that the proposed controller can position and anti-swing well.