<p>During trolley translation along the jib and jib rotation, a tower crane with an underactuated drive system can cause considerable sway to the payload. Several studies have addressed this issue, with particular attention paid to sliding mode control (SMC), which has demonstrated effectiveness in tracking position and reducing vibrations. However, some side effects of relying solely on SMC include chattering and saturation of input signals. Our paper proposes using a combination of feed-forward input shaping (IS) and sliding mode control to overcome the control problems associated with a tower crane. Hybrid input shaping and hierarchical sliding mode control can reduce payload vibration, chattering, and control input. In addition, the controller’s parameters can be determined using particle swarm optimization to optimize a performance index. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory tower crane to verify the proposed controller’s effectiveness. Results showed that the hybrid IS-SMC structure has a response time similar to SMC, but the total swing angle is reduced by 40%.</p>