The ground equipment of tethered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is still in a state of non-integrated system, unmonitored important data, and weaker control. Design a ground control system based on programmable logic controller (PLC), research on the current tethered UAV ground equipment, analyze the working mode, elaborate the task of ground control system, describe the design of hardware and configuration, the key technologies and implementation methods in detail. The application results show that the concentrate control and management of ground equipment is realized, this system possesses the properties of high automation, it meets the needs of tethered UAV, and it will be applied widely.