Abstract—Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) has been widely used in composites manufacture and the tension control system is the key to successful placement. This article designs the structure of tension system for AFP and an in-depth analysis on the process of tension control is carried out. Then, a mathematical model of the tension control system is established and a corresponding simulation experiment is conducted in the paper. Besides, in order to overcome the wrinkle problem, taper tension control strategy instead of constant tension control strategy is used, which shows a good result.