Tension is a key processing parameter in the process of composite fiber tape winding. The fluctuation of tension will affect the accuracy of winding and the performance of winding products, such as stress uniformity, fatigue resistance, strength, compactness and resin content. In view of the winding tension is time-varying and the application of tension needs to be more accurate, a tension calculation model is established. Due to the influence of dynamic performance of tension control system by cogging torque, inverter dead zone, ring gear clearance, friction torque, parameter drift, and measurement noise, an adaptive sliding mode control (ASMC) based on extended state observer (ESO) is proposed. The stability of the closed-loop system is proven by Lyapunov theory, the system state variables is estimated by ESO, and the input dead-zone is compensated by the designed adaptive law. Simulation and experimental results show that ESO-based ASMC improves the robustness and dynamic response performance of the tension control system, and can effectively suppress the chattering of the sliding mode control system. The void content and residual stress of composite products have been improved obviously. INDEX TERMS Composites tape winding, dynamics modeling, ESO, ASMC, tension control.